The sheer thought of the decision Billy Beane made in the winter of 2002 brings up a wave of what-might-have-beens.
If Beane did take that offer from John Henry to become the general manager of the Red Sox it would have undoubtedly changed the course of baseball history. Theo Epstein, for one, doesn't get his chance to do his thing (which is trending toward landing the executive in the Baseball Hall of Fame). Would Boston have won more or less than two world championships over the next five seasons? And what about Beane's A's, who are still looking for their first World Series appearance with the start of "Moneyball" at the helm.
Now it appears as though there might be a Beane-to-the-Red Sox connection, after all.
The company Beane is a co-chair for, RedBall, is reportedly close to merging with Henry and his Fenway Sports Group. According to reports, the deal would land the special purpose acquisition company with less than 25 percent of FSG, which is being valued at about $8 billion.
For Beane, who owns equity in the A's, it might be decision time once again.
"It seems like a clear conflict," Jason Dana, an associate professor of management and marketing at the Yale School of Management told Bloomberg in an email. "A person couldn't, for example, own two different MLB teams. For the same reasons, this seems to be open for the possibility of coordination between two teams, which is bad for the game."
It should be noted that such an acquisition, which would include both the Red Sox and the Liverpool football club, would allow FSG to be a publicly traded company on the stock market.
RedBall is reportedly in the process of raising $1 billion to help complete the deal, which could be done by the end of the month.