Oakland Athletics’ Billy Beane is Throwing Money Down the Drain
After the Billy Butler signing, Oakland Athletics fans should be used to their front office executives throwing money down the drain on silly free agent signings. But on Thursday,
Earlier today, the San Jose Mercury News reported that newly promoted, former A’s GM Billy Beane was fined for excessive use of water. Due to the drought situation in California, water usage is being closely monitored, and those households which exceed the limit are often cited.
Beane’s residence in Danville is going through an average of 5,996 gallons per day, and rather than apologize or promise to change, he simply shrugged it off, saying that he does pay for it.
Being a wealthy baseball executive and owner – or, for that matter, an athlete – does not require a person to hold themselves to a higher standard when it comes to social issues. But at the same time, it does subject them to a much higher level of scrutiny if they fail to meet those standards.
If anyone can afford to make adaptations to their lifestyle to reduce water usage, it’s someone wealthy enough to have partial ownership in a major league team. Beane can simply throw money at landscapers to redo his property in a more water-efficient way. This isn’t an athlete, who might be forced into retirement when his career is cut short. This is someone who is all but tenured as a part of the A’s organization. He just got promoted after a 68-win season. Beane is not going anywhere. His wealth comes from a pretty reliable source.
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It can be infuriating to see the people who will be least affected by a drought do so little to help those who are. Sure, industrial activity and farming are far worse than any one household, but he isn’t helping matters. To laugh it off, as if everyone should understand his predicament of needing his lawn to be luxuriously green, is not just wrong, it’s offensive to his fans. The average baseball fan is not a millionaire, or even remotely close. Most are ordinary people who should feel outraged at his callous attitude towards a problem he will never feel the effects of himself.
Full disclosure: I’m not the most environmentally responsible person. I let the water run while I brush my teeth, and I spend 45 minutes washing a sink full of dishes and then still put them in the dishwasher. There are plenty of ways I myself could be more conservative with my usage.
But, I’m not using 5,996 gallons of water a day. Think about how much that is. If the average household uses 250 gallons a day, Beane is averaging over 719 days worth of water each month.
Personally, I would be mortified if I were Beane. By flaunting his disregard for his fellow citizens, as well as joking about how expensive his bill is, he’s made it very difficult to afford him any sympathy.
Typically, I don’t think it’s necessary to critique how much team owners chooses to spend. If the budget is set at $70 million dollars, it’s up to the organization to work with that amount to put the best possible team on the field. Don’t like small-budget organizations? Root for another team who is willing to spend the cash. Both styles of ownership come with their own challenges and are interesting to watch. Fans in New York and Los Angeles often bemoan their lack of a farm system, while Tampa Bay and Miami fans rant about the improbability of signing a key free agent. Both are issues.
But if Beane is going to throw his money away on frivolous things that damage the community, why shouldn’t fans get on his case about free agent spending? There’s obviously a big price gap between what Beane’s monthly water bill is and what signing a baseball player costs. He’s certainly not going to attracted Jon Lester or Yoenis Cespedes with what he spends on utilities. But it does start some questions about where Beane’s priorities lie, and whether he has the fans’ best interests at heart.
Maybe Beane has lost touch with the reality of being small market team. But regardless of what it says about his ownership role, his blatant disregard for the rules and his unabashedly selfish answer are both bad looks for him and the organization he represents.