It didn’t take the hurlers of Dublin, Tipperary, Clare and Galway long to discover Boston’s list of priorities last Friday when they landed for the Fenway Classic Super 11s.

A few months before Bryan Cullen would become the first Dublin man in 16 years to lift Sam Maguire, the then director of football operations at Chelsea, Mike Forde, spoke at a conference in Liverpool about a bit of a continuing professional development tour he took in on Stateside.

I had occasion to rock up to the Irish Book Awards before Christmas, a good evening in what used to be known as the Burlington, even if it ended long before the usual evening finish, or even morning finish, you’d traditionally associate with the old Burlington.

Alastair Campbell opens with a compliment about an old mate. Kind of. 

Ben Bradlee died last week at the age of 93.

Billy Beane, like Arsene Wenger, knows what it’s like to be at the sharp end of fans’ short-termism. But Mr Moneyball remains a fan and a disciple of the Arsenal manager

Perhaps Moneyball and Billy Beane’s Oakland A’s are to blame, but pro sport’s fascination with statistics is underlined by the franchises taking notes at a special stat conference in Boston

When the Fenway Sports Group took over Liverpool in October 2010, there was widespread excitement.

Companies can score victories over their competitors by training their best number-crunchers to help find trends and patterns that others might not see.

Last summer at a sports conference in Liverpool’s John Moores University, Chelsea’s director of football operations, Mike Forde, recounted a conversation he had with Billy Beane of Moneyball fame.

The January window brings back into focus the issue of scouting and how to tell whether a player you are thinking about buying is worth the risk.

WITH each passing week, any association Liverpool have been keen to promote with Billy Beane’s Oakland A’s, which inspired the book ‘Moneyball’, only seem more ridiculous.

THEY say necessity is the mother of invention.

HOLLYWOOD’S ongoing love affair with the sport of baseball continues with Moneyball (PG), although Bennett Miller’s film is unusual in two respects.

'Moneyball' is a movie about baseball...but it's not a sports movie.

BILLY BEANE, the man behind the Moneyball phenomenon, has dismissed the notion that the principles which brought him success in baseball cannot be adapted to other sports.

Brad Pitt has said he makes "bad choices" when he thinks about making money, so he tries not to let that consideration influence his film choices.

IT’S the top of the 10th inning in Houston and the St Louis Cardinals are battling for the right to keep playing in October, baseball’s favourite month.

'Moneyball' director Bennett Miller was unsure if the movie would ever be completed.

Brad Pitt has signed up to star in 'The Gray Man'.

YOU can call off the search.

WHILE you sit there on the train or in the canteen or outside the school gate, ponder this one: what’s the connection between hurling in north Kerry and Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt?

IT WAS with a good deal of interest that we saw some English newspapers singing the praises of Billy Beane recently.