Our Presentation

I definitely liked our presentation because it was involved with accounting scandals. As an accounting major, it was nice researching some extreme cases of fraud. I didn't know when we began that Rahm Emmanuel was involved in the Freddie Mac scandal, and it was interesting to learn that he played a part in it. I also enjoyed studying the Worldcom scandal, an to see what happens when a leader becomes demanding, and forces results by any means. I learned from our project what can go wrong when profits are the only thing that matters, and ethics are pushed out the window to get them.

NFL Lockout Presentation

I have to admit this was my favorite presentation, mostly because its content was something I was already aware of. I closely followed the events during the spring and summer, and it was nice to get some more info on it. I feel like I have a better understanding of the information after learning the things I did in class. I have a better understanding of the negotiation process, and how both sides handled the negotiations, and the communication problems that rose during negotiations.

Book Report 5

Book Report Section 5

The final segment of Moneyball ends with Michael Lewis describing how a pitcher can excel with a very unusual delivery, and goes in how the Oakland A’s, with an underpaid roster, managed to set an American League Record by winning twenty straight games.

Chapter ten goes into great detail how Chad Bradford, a pitcher with an underhanded delivery, came to pitch in the major leagues. He started playing baseball young, and made it onto his high school baseball team despite lacking any sort of real talent. In order to get some kind of use from him, Chad’s coach took him to a pitching clinic and showed him someone throwing side-armed. Chad took to learning this method of pitching, and spent his winters throwing pitch after pitch to get this side-arm business down.

Chad could have continues to pitch side-armed and never mastered it, although he had something that changed his throwing even more. Chad’s father had a serious stroke when Chad was only two years old. After being told he’d never walk again, he not only walked, but when Chad turned seven, he could play catch, although he could only send the ball back underhanded. During his high school years, when Chad was practicing his side-arm pitching at home, his father would play catch with him. This led to the best advance in Chad’s career, with his arm sinking lower and lower with each pitch, and eventually he came to throw completely underhanded, knuckles touching the dirt when pitching.

This delivery was very different than the norm, and although Chad couldn’t throw with any kind of velocity, all of his pitches had great movement, even his fastballs. He played junior college baseball, and eventually went on to play in the minors. But he got stuck paying for a minor league team in Calgary, famous for the high number of home runs hit in its crisp Rocky-Mountain air. But Chad spent years playing in this exact stadium, and his home runs allowed numbers were far lower than the other pitchers who regularly played on the field. This showed Chad’s advantage, as his movement kept hitters guessing, and the air in the stadium negated velocity, so Chad excelled. Paul, Billy’s assistant, took notice of Chad and finally grabbed him for pitching in the big league, finally giving Chad a chance.

Chapter eleven discusses the psychological tactics of Billy Beane and how he tried to manipulate his players to produce the results he wanted. It discusses his attempts with Chad Bradford, as Chad had undeniable skill, but had almost no self confidence, which could affect his performance. Billy tried many things to raise his confidence, and finally helped him by questioning his faith in Jesus. If Chad believed in Jesus, whom he had never seen, how couldn’t he believe in his talent, which he had witnessed firsthand? This was one of the many ways Billy would reach out to satisfy psychological needs his players had. Billy could read people, and know when they were underperforming. The chapter then jumps to the last game in the A’s bid for twenty straight wins. After leading 11 to nothing, the score came tied at eleven. Scott Hatterberg, after leaving the dugout assuming he wouldn’t get any playing time, being called upon to pinch hit. He comes through with a walk off home run and the Oakland A’s set the AL record.

The final chapter discusses the problems the A’s inevitably faced each post-season. They were built for the long haul, and not to win close games over a stretch. So when the playoffs came, and manufacturing runs became important, the A’s floundered. Billy would seem detached, saying it was his job to reach the playoffs, and anything after was just luck. The A’s never reached the World Series any of these playoff appearances, but the success of the A’s could not go unnoticed. How could a team with no money compete with the Yankees and Red Sox? How could they win a division against richer teams? By changing the way you fill a roster, and knowing how to make value out of nothing, Billy Beane created a formula for winning without money.

(Section 5, Chapters Ten, Eleven, and Twelve, Pages 217 – 280)

Power and Influence

Today's class on the concepts of power and influence was very eye opening, to me at least. Many of the things we talked about I had never really thought of before, and it was interesting to learn how exactly people or institutions come to gain or use power and influence. To begin, I totally agree with the six sources of power in this country, which used to be family, school, and church, but have now become government, military, and business. I agree that this is where the power exists in society today, as these three things definitely have the largest influences on how we live our daily lives. I was also very interested in the cartoon we watched from Saturday Night Live, about the influence of big business on media outlets. I found that although it was a cartoon, the message it gave was still chilling, as these big companies that own the various media outlets can indeed sway public opinion when they need to, simply because they can control what we read and watch in our spare time. The fact that it was never shown after the original airing reinforces this point, and shows the power these businesses have. The cartoon painted them in an unflattering light, and because they owned the tv station, chose to remove it from airing with any reruns. This is the thought that disturbs me the most, that big businesses have so much influence on public opinions and perceptions, and can simply do what they want with these media resources because they have enough money.

In Class Project

After learning more about the point of the project, I have definitely come to see its worth. Although I was on the National Managers Benevolent League, I can clearly see how others in MRC were manipulated to show how power works. Learning that the small things, like writing names bigger, or omitting first names, are enough to create a false sense of power. Not allowing the lower group to interact with the top group was also a good tactic to assign power to the higher ups, and the structure of MRC as a whole was successful at showing how status creates power. Although the lowest group did the work and had higher numbers of people, because they were told they were the lowest group simply put them in the mindset that the weren't as important as the student assigned to the top group. As a member of the NMBL, we came to realize we held a great deal of power because we had the largest quantity of Goat Bucks. Although we couldn't use them, we knew since we had these that we could use it to our advantage to buy slogans for as low a price as possible. After being utterly confused as to why we were doing this experiment, it was good to finally learn what the point actually was. I also think after gaining all of the information that it was a very successful and entertaining way to learn about how power is distributed within a company.

Monday's Activity

During Monday's activity I was assigned to be part of the National Manager's Benevolent League. We started out with a lump sum of Goat Bucks,  but we couldn't actually use them as bonus. Instead, we had to spend them on slogans, and the cheaper we paid, the higher the commission we received. This is how we earned our bonus. Most of the project involved sitting around waiting for representatives from MRC to buy some slogans from. However, this didn't happen until there was only five minutes of class left, so we ended up being able to buy  many slogans for little cost each. I feel the failure of time management by the members of MRC played into our hands, as the time ticked away people were willing to sell slogans cheap just to get something out of the deal. I don't know exactly what the point of the activity was, and I'm not sure I learned anything new. I am very much looking forward to Monday's class in order to learn what exactly the point of all of this was.

Book Report 4

Book Report 4

            The next section of Moneyball examines how circumstances can force someone into changing their way of life. Michael Lewis chooses to discuss Scott Hatterberg, a talented catcher from the Boston Red Sox. Hatterberg’s throwing shoulder was injured, making him unable to properly throw down to second base in stealing situations. This made him useless as a catcher, but Billy still saw some vale in him. Billy was able to acquire Hatterberg after he was traded from Boston to Colorado and immediately released. Billy knew he wasn’t viable at the catcher’s spot, so he came up with the idea to transition him to first base. Hatterberg and fielding coach Ron Washington weren’t thrilled by this idea, but Billy thought Hatterberg was too good of a hitter to let is injury end his career. Billy chose first base because of the limited throwing, which allowed Hatterberg to stay on the field, and in turn stay in the lineup.

            The transition wasn’t easy, and Hatterberg was slow to learn too field at first base. Hatterberg persisted though, and after each game became more comfortable out at first base. His hitting is what got him his job, and he performed as expected. What no one expected, however, was for Hatterberg to become a solid fielding first baseman. Hatterberg turned out to be a great pick up for Bill, getting on base often and turning into a reliable fielder day in and day out.

The ninth chapter of Moneyball focuses on how Billy Beane was so successful at creating a new team throughout the season through ingenious trading tactics. Billy knew that as the season went on and teams fell out of contention, they had one desire, to cut costs for the rest of the season. Billy used this knowledge to manipulate trades for players he would be unable to acquire at the beginning of the season. Michael Lewis points out that because of Billy’s great trading prowess, the Oakland Athletics have the best record of any team over a four year period after the midseason all-star break.  

Lewis then goes into detail about Billy’s handling of attempting to acquire Ricardo Rincon, a relief pitcher. Billy knows he doesn’t have the highest offer for him, so he tried instead to unload a cheap player to his competition, the San Francisco Giants. By giving them a lesser pitcher, Billy is creating more money to spend, and lessening the Giants’ need for another pitcher.  Billy also unloads an unneeded prospect to the New York Mets for an unimportant prospect, but also the cash needed to finish the Rincon deal.  After all of his calls and marketing, Billy closed the deal and picked up the player he wanted, without any actual cash being spent by the Oakland front office.

            The rest of the chapter further plays out the genius of Billy Beane, making quick trades through multiple teams to pick up players he couldn’t normally afford and unload prospects that didn’t immediately impact his team. This strategy led to a new Oakland team after every all-star break. Although the lack of money in Oakland resulted in them only getting these new players for often a single year, Billy would simply repeated his process the next year to fill any holes on the field. By knowing the needs of other teams, and being a brash negotiator, Billy was able to manipulate his way into picking up talented players for little to no cost.

            This section of the book truly shows the innovative side and genius of Billy Beane. He knew he had limited resources, but he also knew how to counter this and make the most of what he had. He had to be cunning and sneaky in order to work deals players he shouldn’t have been able to afford. Billy was great at this aspect of managing, and this helped to create a winning team year after year for far less a cost than the rich team sin New York or Boston. Through Billy’s genius, the Oakland Athletics were yearly contenders, something most teams with his budget couldn’t dream of becoming.

(Section 4, Chapters Eight and Nine, Pages 162 - 216)