Thursday, February 12, 2004

Billy Beane = Bill Walsh ??

From the Depodesta post on Elephants in Oakland:
Billy Beane mentioned he would love to accomplish what Bill Walsh had in the BayArea (yes, it is one word). Building a championship team with interchangeable parts on the field and in the front office and those who left the organization being successful with the same strategies. Of course, what Beane may have meant was that he would like to accomplish what Paul Brown was able to accomplish.
I think that the Billy Beane/Bill Walsh comparison is fair. Where Paul Brown was certainly the patriarch of the Walsh "family," Sandy Alderson gave Beane his start and introduced him to the work of Bill James.
Parts of the West Coast Offense (or WCO) approach were conceptualized and implemented by such historical football figures as Paul Brown and Sid Gillman, but it was really Walsh who brought the system to fruition. - ProFootballProspectus.com
Try that statement again like this: "Parts of the approach were conceptualized and implemented by such historical baseball figures as Sandy Alderson, but it was really Beane who brought the system to fruition." Doesn't that sound about right?

2 comments:

  1. I think your comparison is fair, on a purely theoretical level. Bill Walsh won championships. Beene has not done anything in the post season. In fact, a sabermetrically built team has yet to perform in a tournament situation. A GM can oversee all the 100 win seasons he wants but without a championship, he and his team will be labeled chokers. Sports history is full of innovative coaches and GMs who could never win the big games. Bill Walsh is apart of the elite group of professionals who manage both feats. Those two levels of professional sports are worlds apart.

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  2. I think your comparison is fair, on a purely theoretical level. Bill Walsh won championships. Beene has not done anything in the post season. In fact, a sabermetrically built team has yet to perform in a tournament situation. A GM can oversee all the 100 win seasons he wants but without a championship, he and his team will be labeled chokers. Sports history is full of innovative coaches and GMs who could never win the big games. Bill Walsh is apart of the elite group of professionals who manage both feats. Those two levels of professional sports are worlds apart.

    ReplyDelete