Our good friend Spiral of the Joe Rudi Revival forwards the following tidbit from the San Jose Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami.
So I saw Billy (Beane) after a game and asked to talk to him. He said fine, but he had some food and wanted to sit down during the interview.
Where did we go for the talk? Billy zipped right into Macha™s office, which was empty for the time being, plopped down and started eating.
Looked at me, said, œGo ahead, ask. Usually, everybody stays out of the manager™s office, by the way, unless the manager is there and is fine with it. Not the A™s way, though.
I started asking, but a few minutes later Macha and Curt Young came back, with plates of food and just in their underwear, obviously looking to eat, change clothes and relax.
They stared at us, I stared at them, Billy just kept eating and talking.
Macha tenatively sat down behind his desk for a few seconds. Very uncomfortable. Shot another glance at Beane. Glared at me. I shrugged, said to Beane, œUmm, maybe we should do this somewhere else.
Beane looked up like this was the first he™d noticed Macha was there“or cared that he was there“dropped his plate, then just waved at Macha, pointing him out the door. Remember, this was Macha™s own office. After winning for something like the 33rd time in 40 games.
œKen, you can let us do this, right? Beane said as he waved.
Beane turned back to me and never looked at Macha again as Macha and Young sighed, got up, and moved out.
That was the relationship. Right there. Beane is the man. Macha always knew it, even when he was in his own office.