Online Class Notes (Jesse)

I watched the moneyball last Sunday, and I was inspired by this movie and think it as a great movie starter of the New year, especially when I’m still working on my New Year’s Resolution.
Moneyball tells a story of a former baseball player Billy Bean now as the general manager of Oakland Athletics. Billy grows tired with the ancient, and low efficient ways of scouting players, traditional trainings, so he decided to make a change with a more objective and quantified way of playing baseball. So, he poached / scout a guy from red sox, who is graduated from Yale with a bachelor degree of economics and good at using data to analyze the players. With the help of the assistant, Billy restructures the team, and each player in the team has their own edge among striking, homeruns, battings. While no one think high of the team, as the players they hired have flaws/ defects. In the end, it was astonishing that they made to the 2nd place in 2002 NFL with their upgraded playing methods. I think there are 3 things we can learn from Billy / the movie.
1. Think a game / team not as fragmented pieces but as a whole picture. Usually in a baseball game, everyone expects to have versatile players who are excellent / good in each item, but super outstanding in none of the items, so in total they are actually not winning as a whole team
2.As a leader, the most important thing is to leverage different people’s talent and achieve the goal to make a difference. Billy knows something needs to change, but he doesn’t know how to do, cause he’s not the expert of data/ scouting. That’s the reason he poached the competent assistant. Same for the players, he hired the most needed players for the team not some so called talented players, he know what he needs for the team
3. Dare to change. Everyone fails, but only someone of them can have the courage to dust off and try again. Billy is one of them, he failed when he was young as a baseball player, he has a negative thought that he’s bad luck in baseball, and he is a bit lack of confidence. While after continuously trying of his methods, and holding the beliefs firmly, he rebuilds his confidence, and succeeds in the end.

I watched the Moneyball (the film called Moneyball) last Sunday, and I was inspired by this movie and think it as a great starter movie of the New year, especially as I’m still working on my New Year’s Resolution.
Moneyball tells a story of a former baseball player, Billy Bean, who is now the general manager of Oakland Athletics. Billy grows tired with the ancient, and low efficient ways of scouting players, traditional trainings, so he decided to make a change with a more objective and quantitative way of playing baseball. So, he poached / scouted a guy from the red sox, who has graduated from Yale with a bachelor degree of / in economics and is good at using data to analyze the players / good at the data analysis of players. With the help of the assistant, Billy restructures the team, and each player in the team has their own edge among striking, homeruns, and battings. While no one thinks highly of the team, as the players they hired have flaws / defects. In the end, it was astonishing that they made it to the 2nd place in the 2002 MLB season with their upgraded playing methods. I think there are 3 things we can learn from Billy / the movie.
1. Think of a game / team not as fragmented pieces but as a whole picture. Usually in a baseball game, everyone expects to have versatile players who are excellent / good in each area, but not super outstanding in any single area / particular area, so in total they are actually not winning as a whole team. / Players are expected to be all-rounders rather than to excel in any single area. 
2.As a leader, the most important thing is to leverage different people’s talent and achieve the goal to make a difference. Billy knows something needs to change, but he doesn’t know how to do it, cause he’s not the expert of data/ scouting which is the reason he poached the competent assistant in the first place. Same for the players, he hired the most needed players for the team, not some so-called talented players, as he know what he needs for the team, which is why he ends up being so successful as a manager.
3. You must learn to dare to change. Everyone fails, but only some have the courage to dust themselves off and try again, with Billy being one of them. Even though he failed when he was a young baseball player, he has a negative thought that he has bad luck in baseball, and he lacks confidence. While after continuously trying of his methods, and holding firm to his beliefs, in the end he rebuilds his confidence, and succeeds.

Vocabulary

beanie – the hat you wear during winter

to lack sth

poach / steal / headhunt

dust themselves off / pick themselves up 

As your teacher, I always try to teach you things.

I am a Yale graduate
I have graduated from Yale 

all-rounder 

Pronunciation

scout – skaaaooooot

ancient – ain shent

latte – “lar tay”