”Moneyball” : A Sport Or A Business Or Both?

Is Major League Baseball (MLB) a sport or a business or both? It depends on whom you ask. For fans, it is a sport. For players, coaches , general managers and owners , it is a business, And it is both for wise guys who know how to provide best entertainment to fans and to make big money at the same time. So why not to take a closer look at the movie “Moneyball”1 and find out how some people achieved this?

Look closer at “What's the problem?”

Baseball, or any other professional sports, has become a game of money in most aspects over years. The richest team can buy the best players to win World Series. The poorest can only stay in a small market with the limited financial support from much fewer fans. To most people, less money is almost equal to no possibility of winning, and even if your team is magically closer to win World Series this year, it is impossible to retain your best players around next year. The rich teams will just buy them out. So what is the “right” problem for small teams?

In the movie “Moneyball”, Billy Beane, GM of Oakland A's, recognized the underneath problem. But Grady Fusion, his head of recruiters did not. Billy repeatedly asked Grady “What's the problem.” Grady, in his eyes, was to solve the problem of losing best players. Billy, on the other hand, was to solve a problem in a much larger picture. Billy said “If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we will lose to the Yankees out there.”1 Because he realized they just could not compete with the rich teams by spending limited money, and recognized they would lose business over time by repeating the same strategy.

Seeking advantages

Knowing the right problems only is not enough to solve the problems. The next logic step is to find optimal solutions. It is obvious that hiring better players is counterproductive. Then how can a poor baseball in a small market complete with the teams with more money out there?

Peter Brand, a shy and soft spoken person portrayed in the movie, has an idea of how to win the games. He said “Your goal shouldn't be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins. And in order to buy wins, you need to buy runs.”1 What you don't need is all of the best players but the best performance of a combined players. Is this an advantage or just a theory from Peter who majored in Economics, and never played ball before? Billy was willing to see it through by hiring Peter from another baseball team.

Persistence pays off

No one said change is easy. Billy and Peter faced all kinds of resistance from everyone, even the owner of A's had doubt in this approach. Before the players believed themselves, Billy had no doubt this is a way to win. With uninterrupted persistence, his team won and broke a record.

John Henry, the owner of Red Sox, said to Billy in the movie “You won the exact same number of games that the Yankees won, but the Yankees spent one point four million per win and you paid two hundred and sixty thousand. I know you've taken it in the teeth out there, but the first guy through the wall. It always gets bloody, always.” ¹

Without self doubt, uninterrupted persistence, Billy and Peter would not got there. Who said winning is cheap?

Have faith in what you love

Like an old saying “Do what you love and love what you do”. The key of success is not how much money you make, but your accomplishment done through your faith in love. And for the fun part we will conclude with what Billy said in the movie below:

“It's hard not to be romantic about baseball. This kind of thing, it's fun for the fans. It sells tickets and hot dogs. Doesn't mean anything.“ ¹

Next time, we will find out “Are you a bridge for people at your company or a bridge maintenance worker at your job?”

(1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210166/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneyball:_The_Art_of_Winning_an_Unfair_Game

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「魔球」是一種運動還是企業？或兩者兼而有之？

職業棒球大聯盟（MLB）是一種運動或是一種企業？還是兩者皆是？這取決於你問誰。對於球迷來說，是一種運動。對於球員、教練、業主，它是一個企業。對聰明的人而言，它兩者皆是，因為聰明的人知道如何給球迷提供最好的娛樂，同時知道如何掙大錢。那我們何不仔細探討電影「魔球」，並找出那些人如何實現這個理念。

仔細看，出了什麼問題嗎？

棒球，或任何其他的職業運動，多年來在許多方面已經成為一種金錢遊戲。最富有的球隊可以買到最好的球員而贏得World Series；最貧窮的球隊只能停留在一個小市場，從少量的球迷中獲得有限的財政支持。對大多數人來說，貧窮的球隊是幾乎等於沒有奪冠的可能性，即使今年你的球隊奇蹟似地幾乎要贏得世界大賽，明年你的球隊仍然不可能保有最好的球員，因為富有的團隊會將他們買去。那麼，對貧窮的小團隊而言，「真正的問題」到底在哪裡呢？

在電影「魔球」中，Billy Beane，也就是Oakland A隊的GM，很清楚最主要的問題在哪。但Grady Fusion，獵人頭的首領，並不清楚問題何在。Billy持續不斷地問Grady : “What's the problem.” Grady認為必須解決「流失好球員」的問題。而Billy則認為要解決的是更深一層的問題。Billy說：「如果我們試圖成為像洋基一樣的球隊，我們將會輸給洋基。」因為他意識到，Oakland A無法用有限的錢與富有的團隊競爭。如果他們重複著與過去相同的策略，總有一天他們會失去這份事業。

尋求優勢

只知道問題在哪並不足以解決問題。下一個的邏輯步驟是找到最佳的解決方案。顯然，聘請更好的球員將適得其反。那麼，一個貧窮的棒球隊如何能在一個小市場裡與富有的球隊競爭？

Peter Brand，一個害羞而輕聲細語的人，有一個贏得比賽的主意。他說：「你的目標不應該是聘請最好的球員，你的目標應該是獲得勝利。為了勝利，你需要好的跑者。」 你不需要最佳的球員，而是一個最佳的球隊。而這到底是一個優勢，或者僅僅是Peter Brand──主修經濟學，從來沒有玩過球的人──的理論？Billy，從另一個棒球隊僱用Peter Brand，期望看到這個目標實現。

堅持就是勝利

沒有人認為改變是容易的，Billy和Peter面臨著各種阻力。所有人都懷疑這個方法是否可行。在球員相信自己之前，Billy毫不懷疑這就是贏球的辦法。而時間證明，他的球隊贏了，並且打破了紀錄。

紅襪隊的老闆John Henry對Billy說：「你和洋基隊贏得同數的比賽，但洋基隊每贏一場就花了140萬，而你每場只花費26萬美元。你是第一個咬緊牙關並突破難關的人。任何要完成這件事的人，永遠是頭破血流。」

若非自我懷疑與不間斷的堅持，Billy和Peter不會完成這個創舉。誰說得勝是便宜的？

對你喜歡的要有信心

套一句老話：Do what you love and love what you do。成功的關鍵不在於賺了多少錢，而是藉由你對事情的信心與熱愛，來完成你的成就。我們用Billy在電影裡的一句台詞來作結：

“It's hard not to be romantic about baseball. This kind of thing, it's fun for the fans. It sells tickets and hot dogs. Doesn't mean anything.“ ¹

下一次，我們來討論：「在公司裡，你是一座橋樑，或者你是橋樑的維修工人？」

參考資料來源

(1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210166/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneyball:_The_Art_of_Winning_an_Unfair_Game