(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Billy Beane to advice Dutch soccer-club AZ
Nederlands
 ALKMAAR (Neth.) -
Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, will advice Dutch soccer-club AZ, which plays in the Honor Division, the highest professional soccer-league in The Netherlands.
Beane will advice the club in innovation and topsport-management.
The Alkmaar-based soccer club announced the news on its website on Tuesday (March 17).
In the announcement, Earnest Stewart (Director Soccer Affairs) states that the club is in talks with Beane for several months.
,,His knowledge and ideas have impressed us.
In the field of innovation, he things ahead several steps.
That fits the ambition of AZ'', said Stewart, who was born in the Netherlands, but has the American nationality (he played in 101 games for Team USA Soccer).
AZ's General Manager is Robert Eenhoorn, who himself played in 37 games in the Major League for the New York Yankees and Anaheim Angels.
He was a successful Field Manager of the Netherlands National Baseball Team (2001-2008), then was the Technical Director of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) since 2009.
He resigned in October last year to transfer to to soccer-world.
As Manager, he led the Orange squad to four consecutive European titles and during his tenure as Technical Director, the Dutch Team captured the World Championship-title in 2011 and reached the semi-final of the World Baseball Classic in 2013.
,,Before I came, they were already interested in the Moneyball-principle'', Eenhoorn is saying on the AZ-website.
,,Because of my past in baseball, I have a good contact with Billy.
When we approached him, he was very enthousiastic.
He will advice us from the States, but also will come to Alkmaar.''
On AZ's website, Billy Beane states that he sees parallels with the challenges he faced with the Oakland A's.
As an outfielder, Beane played only 148 games in the Major League in parts of six seasons with four different clubs.
He played for the New York Mets (1984-1985), Minnesota Twins (1986-1987), Detroit Tigers (1988) and Oakland A's (1989).
After conclusion of his playing career, Beane became a scout with the A's in 1990 and after the 1997 season, he became the club's General Manager.
He went on to become very successful in his front office career when he started to apply statistical analysis (known as sabermetrics) to players, which were used to evaluate these players.
In 2003, Michael Lewis wrote a book about these baseball economics, called 'Moneyball'.
In 2011, the book was made into a movie with the same title, starring Brad Pitt as Beane.
The movie, directed by Bennett Miller, also starred Robin Wright (as Sharon), Jonah Hill (as Peter Brand) and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who passed away on February 2 last year at age 46.
Hoffman, who by the way had some Dutch ancestry, played the role of Art Howe, who was Manager of the A's in 1996-2002.
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...Wednesday on its Teletext-pages... |
The film earned 66 nominations for various awards, winning 32 of them.
Amongst them are six nominations for an Academy Award (Oscar), including for Best Actor (Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Hill) and Best Motion Picture.
Oakland played in the World Series in three consecutive years (1988-1990) and had the highest payroll in 1991.
After owner Walter A. Haas, Jr. passed away in 1995, new owners ordered to cut the payroll.
Then-General Manager Sandy Alderson started focusing on using sabermetrics and doing so, acquired some undervalued players.
Beane succeeded Alderson in October 1997.
He continued and expanded using sabermetrics and the Oakland Athletics became one of the most cost-effective teams in the Major League.
It had a low payroll, but the team became successful on the field.
Oakland reached the Play-Offs in four consecutive years (2000-2003).
In 2002, Oakland became the first team in the more than 100 years of history in the American League to win 20 consecutive games.
In 2006, the A's reached the American League Championship Series.
After the 2002 season, Beane was made an offer by the Boston Red Sox to become their General Manager, but he stayed with Oakland.
Since then, his contract was extended twice and he is now under contract with the club through 2019.
After not reaching the Play-Offs in 2007-2011, the A's qualified for the postseason again in 2012 and 2013, winning the AL West Division.
Since Beane's successful approach, several other General Managers have followed his strategy.
Beane is no stranger to soccer.
When the ownership group of the Athletics purchased the San Jose Earthquakes (Major League Soccer), Beane developed a system for analyzing soccer players.
He also agreed to help develop a method for building a cost-effective team.
In December 2009, Beane was named number 10 on the lost of Top-10 General Managers/Executive of the Decade in all sports by Sports Illustrated.
(March 18)
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