Billy Beane

The Harvard University economics grad who upended centuries of baseball thinking, bringing his computer and fresh statistical formulas into the Oakland A's war room, is going to help Sears find out if it has game. Translating Major League Baseball...

For 17 seasons, Derek Jeter has been the best reason to keep believing in baseball. His throwback approach has yielded daily excellence in the middle of the Yankees infield. He has kept life simple off the field, and that never seems to be a bad idea....

Bud Selig will be done with his reign of power in Major League Baseball effective 2014 and the search for a new leader is under way. So who are some of the names — past and present — circulating in conversation to become the next...

DETROIT — New on the job and with a potential playoff team on his hands, Brian Sabean went out to find as much pitching as he could. He targeted the team that had the most to give, and shocked the baseball world by landing Roberto Hernandez,...

PHOENIX — I write this column with a headache. I went to a meeting of the SABR Analytics Conference here Thursday night. The throbbing may never stop. SABR stands for Society for American Baseball Research. It is basically an organization that...

Look out, below. The Rangers, who not so long ago were morphing into the Yankees, are coming down to Earth before our eyes. Barring some diplomacy worthy of a great secretary of state, Nolan Ryan is on his way out of the organization. He feels...

You can't quite see it from here, but the finish line is about to appear in the distance for baseball's oversized pack of contenders. The collapses by the Red Sox and Braves last season caution against reaching any conclusions at this point. But for...

— The familiar coach on the other end of the phone was speaking from Oregon, where he was preparing his newest team, the University of Iowa, for a second-round NIT game. Franny McCaffery is a grizzled 52 years old now. Heck, even his voice has...

Tony La Russa might be managing the 2012 White Sox if not for one reason — if he returned to Chicago, he would have had to manage against his best friend in baseball, Jim Leyland. That wasn't going to happen, according to some who know La Russa...

No. 14 Dodgers: 17th in a series counting down to spring training. Next: Giants. How about that Frank McCourt? Who knew he secretly was growing his wealth when he and his ex-wife Jamie were running the Dodgers into the ground? McCourt might have battled...

First in a series, counting down to the opening of spring training. First up: the Athletics, No. 30 in Phil Rogers' power rankings. Loved the movie "Moneyball." If you weren't touched by Billy Beane's relationship with his daughter, you don't have a...

Director Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” is the perfect sports movie for these cash-strapped times of efficiency maximization. It's also the best sports movie in a long time, period, as well as honestly inspirational — even though...