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sports · 2002
The 2002 Oakland Athletics beat a market, not just other teams: they bought wins the rich clubs did not know they were selling, until a bestseller told everyone the price.
Facts drawn from league statistical records and contemporary reporting; payroll tallies vary by accounting method and are labeled accordingly.
The 2002 Oakland Athletics carried a payroll of about 41 million dollars while the New York Yankees spent about 126 million dollars, roughly three times as much [MODELED]. Both clubs won 103 games that season [VERIFIED]. That equivalence, purchased at a threefold discount, is the whole story in one line, and general manager Billy Beane's method for achieving it became the defining case of market inefficiency in professional sports.
The method was to trust measurements over impressions. Baseball's talent market priced players heavily on visible athletic tools and scouting projection, while underpricing the unglamorous skill most tightly linked to scoring runs: getting on base. Oakland bought on-base ability wherever it came cheap, in slow catchers, injured pitchers, and castoff first basemen, and after losing star Jason Giambi to a contract it could not approach, the front office famously replaced his on-base contribution in aggregate across several inexpensive players rather than attempting to replace the man.