I remember looking out at Buzzards Bay and the sailboats in 2002, and Billy Beane and his daughter Casey saying it seemed like paradise. They were getting a feel for what it would be like to live on the other coast, as it was clear that Red Sox owner John Henry would essentially pay anything to have Beane run the Red Sox team he had bought that year.



Four months later, for a matter of a few hours, he had agreed to take the Red Sox job — only, while the baseball hierarchies were in Tucson, Ariz., at the General Managers’ meetings, he changed his mind for the best of reasons: Not power or glory or riches or fame, but three generations of family. (Not to mention better coverage of USC on college football’s national signing day.)



Fast-forward to the penultimate Sunday of the regular season, long past Brad Pitt, Scott Hatteberg and the Moneyball A’s or the consecutive first-place finishes of 2012-13. There were seven games left to play in the 2019...