Oakland A's General Manager and SABR deity Billy Beane spoke at a Villanova Law School symposium last Friday to talk about the impact of Moneyball on business and sports among other things. The panel was moderated by Daily News sports columnist Ed Rendell and also included former Mets GM Omar Minaya.
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Frank Fitzpatrick attended the talk and captured a fantastic nugget about how the 1993 Phillies may have been a spark to the whole Moneyball phenomenon.
"I was right here in Philadelphia watching the World Series [which the Phils lost to Toronto]," said Beane. "Those '93 Phillies took a ton of pitches, walked a ton, and scored a ton of runs. That's when it hit me."
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Now, as a 12-year-old watching that team, I certainly didn't pay a whole lot of attention to Macho Row's walk rates, but looking back now, it's pretty cool that the guy who helped pave the way for a new system of putting together a baseball team based heavily on statistics used our gritty Phillies as inspiration.
Who'da thunk it.
Also of note from the Philly.com story: Beane is not nearrrrrly as attractive as Brad Pitt. Also surprising. Hollywood is always lying to us.
Finally, there's also a quick Nails anecdote at the end of Franky Fitz's story if you haven't gotten your Dude fill lately.
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We did a quick YouTube search to see if there was any footage of the symposium online, but all we came up with was this Inside the Actors Studio with the Oscar nominee.