Greetings from Phoenix where I have been hard at work bringing A's and River Cats coverage to the faithful Enterprise readers. And by hard at work I mean sitting in the sun watching baseball and hanging out with Athletics and River Cats players and staff.
Friday, the assembled Sacramento-area media interviewed A’s general manger Billy Beane. When we arrived at his office I was surprised to see Billy lounging in a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts with his dog as the main greeting party. It was at that moment that I finally put it all together: the entire Oakland organization is a model of Beane’s personality, which can be described as the perfect mix between laid back and getting the job done.
Beane gave us a wealth of information while making the interview seem like a type of conversation you might have over a couple of adult beverages. You hear stories of former players like like Jason Giambi and Nick Swisher having fun in the clubhouse and even on the field. The organization still manages to succeed in its own right at the big-league level as well as locally with the River Cats.
Actually I had been thinking about this a few days earlier when I arrived at the A’s spring training complex and interviewed pitching prospect Gio Gonzalez, who Oakland acquired from the White Sox in the trade for Swisher. It seemed no matter what question I asked Gonzalez, his answer ended up being something about how wonderful everyone in the organization has been and how much fun he was having. And it was not a ploy to evade my questions. It was clear that he genuinely liked being
here.
I guess that's more information to support that the A’s are one of baseball’s model organizations.
- Chris Saur
No comments:
Post a Comment