When finding genius is more than Beane-counting

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

Readers with better-than-average recall may remember some time ago we mentioned Beane, a baseball manager of some repute with the Oakland Athletics, and the book written about him by Michael Lewis, Moneyball.

Here’s the 30-second version: the book explains how Beane decided to ignore the hunches and gut instincts of baseball scouts in favour of the hard currency of statistics and percentages when it comes to picking players.