Football
Alan Schwarz, MLB 23y

Here's the short of it: A's success began with Alderson

Every royal family tends to pass on its own distinguishing characteristics. From the hemophilia of Russian monarchs to the hedonism of the Kennedys, one trait always marks what makes the group's lineage unique.

Perhaps Sandy Alderson didn't make as many heads roll as Henry VIII and the Tudors, but his signature habit of wearing shorts during spring training -- when such laxity was unheard of among general managers -- could very well go down as the common thread throughout the House of Alderson, which has shaped modern baseball teams today the way Branch Rickey's offspring did two generations ago.

Sure enough, if you visit the A's Arizona complex in spring training nowadays, you'll find Billy Beane (not to mention Paul DePodesta, his young protégé in the third generation of Alderson disciples) wearing, invariably, shorts.

"When you have someone as bright as Sandy is and such a great leader, and the guy wears shorts, just the symbolism of it, it was very impressive," Beane says. "And confident. It's a great combination."

We can now add to that combination sheer front-office talent, which Alderson's A's of the late 1980s and beyond have had in droves.

Alderson's top lieutenants during that time were future GMs Walt Jocketty and Ron Schueler, and uniformed personnel included future managers (Dusty Baker and Don Baylor) and executives (Bob Watson and Dave Stewart). Alderson himself went on to bigger things, becoming MLB's current baseball-operations chief who has made the strike zone and fixing the amateur draft among his top priorities. Those A's were a bustling executive petri dish, becoming baseball's version of Miami of Ohio's Cradle of Coaches. Oakland is Executive Elementary.

"It all starts with Sandy," Beane says. "We all have different styles, but I don't think there's any of us who would say we don't take a large portion of what we do now and attribute a lot of it to some of the things we learned just being around Sandy on a daily basis. Sandy chose his people and gave them a lot of autonomy. He allowed them to grow from within the position he gave them."

Says Stewart, now the Blue Jays' assistant GM and a future top man himself, "There was always a feeling that I worked with Sandy, not for him. He was very, very good at making you feel like you had something to offer."

Despite being a former Marine and attorney, Alderson emphasized easygoing excellence. (Hence the relaxed sportswear.) That might have had its greatest impact on Beane, a young utilityman signed by the A's who soon retired to become an advance scout, assistant GM and then, in 1997, Alderson's successor. He now is considered among the best GMs in the game today.


It all starts with Sandy. We all have different styles, but I don't think there's any of us who would say we don't take a large portion of what we do now and attribute a lot of it to some of the things we learned just being around Sandy on a daily basis.
— 
Billy Beane, A's GM, on his former boss Sandy Alderson

"I never really liked Billy as a player," Alderson says with a smile. "If you look at my approach, which is to put a premium on patience and power, Billy didn't reflect either of those qualities. But he was an extra man, and he was earnest, worked hard, and complemented what we had." After becoming advance scout, Alderson says, "His enthusiasm, his tenacity, his intellect, his grasp of the game, they really came to the fore. He's a quick study, and he quickly adopted philosophies that made him a real complement to the organization."

Beane inherited the affinity for power and on-base percentage, all right, but patience? Not entirely. He can barely watch A's games live, and when he does must do so while working out to burn off his energy and anxiety. He once jumped off the treadmill to phone DePodesta and vent. "What the hell was that?" he screamed. "What's he swinging at? It's 3-and-1!!!"

Just 28, DePodesta himself could be GM any day now. (If he's hired away by the end of November 2002, he will succeed Randy Smith as the youngest GM in major-league history.) While other 1995 Harvard grads scampered after six-figure Wall Street jobs like a pack of Pavlovian dogs, DePodesta took an intern position with the Indians that paid him $800 a month, had him working 100 hours a week and included such glamorous duties as faxing, typing and driving an airport pickup van. "But I felt that I'd just won the lottery," he says.

DePodesta distinguished himself in two years as an advance scout under GM Dan O'Dowd before Beane grabbed him in late 1998. "Like Sandy always did, I was looking for a guy who could be a great GM -- a potential star," Beane says. And like Alderson had with him some eight years before, Beane threw DePodesta straight into the fire, handling everything from contracts to trades to scouting.

Now one of the industry's rising stars, as adept at assessing lineups and ledgers, DePodesta is in no rush to take the first GM job offered to him. He prefers to bide his time in Oakland, working under Beane and helping the A's turn the industry on its ear as The Little Market That Could.

When he does leave he'll solidify himself as the leader of the third generation of Aldersons, and probably train the fourth. The influence of the men working for the Oakland A's in the late '80s will be felt for at least another decade or two. Especially if you stop by a few spring training sites.

"We always kid about how Sandy's greatest legacy here in Oakland is that he wore shorts," Beane says, "and now we all can, from here to eternity."

Alan Schwarz is the Senior Writer for Baseball America and a regular contributor to ESPN The Magazine.

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