In the 1970s, Billy Beane was a 6’4” 195-pound star athlete in baseball, basketball, and football at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego. He was big and strong, handsome and charismatic. Brad Pitt was 5 inches shorter but, other than that, a good choice to play Beane in the movie Moneyball.
Stanford offered Beane a combined baseball-football scholarship, hoping he would play outfield on their baseball team and quarterback on their football team. Beane said “no thanks” when he was a high school senior and drafted in the first round of the 1980 MLB draft by the New York Mets. Over six seasons, he played for four teams, with 315 plate appearances (equal to roughly half a full season), hit three home runs, and batted 0.219. As with Danny Goodwin, the eye test didn’t work.
