I don't wish to discuss the merits, or lack thereof, of Ken Macha as a manager, as this has been done to death over the last couple of days, couple of months, and couple of years. I do, however, wish to "congratulate" Billy Beane on his "shrewd" negotiating tactics--and please make sure to note the careful use of quotation marks.
Billy, you most certainly won the battle. You got the manager you originally said you wanted for the exact amount of money you originally offered; you never budged, and eventually your manager came crawling back. Here's the thing...You want your manager to carry with him a maximum level of leadership, respectability, and gravitas. Perhaps the image of him crawling is not the best one to leave in the minds of players, fans, and sportswriters? Perhaps it would have been worth offering a token extra $25,000 or $50,000 just so your manager could say, "He upped the offer a bit and I accepted"? Or maybe you could have delivered a better quote for the press than, "He was good enough for us before, and he's good enough for us now"?
You won the battle, for sure--and now you have a manager who crawled back so he could be publicly declared "good enough". Seems like you may have lost the war.
