MoneyFutbol!

...the Quakes have now aquired Arturo Alvarez from FC Dallas! I think the relationship between the Oakland A's and the Quakes (same ownership) is showing now in FULL FORCE. I can't help thinking that Billy B. is either directly involved or is serving as an advisor in the most recent flurry of transactions that have been executed by the Quakes.

Read this exerpt from a NY Times article from last Aug. 2007:

Wolff said one of the key members of the team’s brain trust would probably be Billy Beane, the A’s general manager, who is a rabid, if closeted, soccer fan. Beane’s frugality and keen evaluation of baseball players for a small-market team was dissected in the book “Moneyball.”
“Billy and his staff will help a lot in identifying players,” Wolff said. “I took Billy and a bunch of A’s executives to the World Cup in Germany last summer. I was just in awe of their knowledge of soccer. They know about every baseball player who can stand upright and they also know soccer. What was funny was that, in the middle of the baseball season, Billy was away in Europe and the A’s won six games.”