Grady: Billy? Can we talk?

 

Billy: Yeah. Yeah. You're unhappy, Grady. Why?

 

Grady: Wow. May I speak candidly¹?

 

Billy: Sure, go ahead.

 

Grady: Major League Baseball and its fans, they're gonna be more than happy to throw you and Google Boy under the bus if you keep doing what you're doing here. You don't put a team together with a computer.

 

Billy: No?

 

Grady: No. Baseball isn't just numbers. It's not science. If it was, anybody could do what we're doing, but they can't. Because they don't know what we know. They don't have our experience and they don’t have our intuition².

 

Billy: Okay.

 

Grady: You got a kid in there that's got a degree in economics³ from Yale. You got a scout⁴ here with 29 years of baseball experience. You're listening to the wrong one. Now, there are intangibles that only baseball people understand. You're discounting what scouts⁵ have done for 150 years? Even yourself?

 

Billy: Adapt or die.

 

Grady: This is about you and your shit, isn't it? Twenty years ago, some scout got it wrong.

 

Billy: Whoa. Okay. Okay.

 

Grady: Now you declare war on the system.

 

Billy: Okay, okay, my turn. You don't have a crystal⁶ ball. You can't look at a kid and predict his future any more than I can. I've sat at those kitchen tables with you and listened to you tell parents, "When I know, I know. And when it comes to your son, I know." And you don't. You don't.

 

Grady: Okay. I don't give a shit about friendship, this situation, or the past. Major League Baseball thinks the way I think. You're not gonna win. And I'll give you a nickel's worth of free advice. You're never gonna get another job after this catastrophic season you're about to set us all up for. You'll have to explain to your kid why you're working at Dick's Sporting Goods.

 

Billy: I'm not gonna fire you, Grady.

 

Grady: Fuck you, Billy.

 

Billy: Now I will.

 

Grady: Good luck, Art.

 

Billy: Kubota. You never played ball, right?

 

Kubota: I played a little T-ball.

 

Billy: You're the new head scout. Congratulations. So Boston's gonna wait and see?

 

Peter: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Billy: It's just you and me, Pete. And we're all in.

 

*********************************

 

Commentator⁷ A: I mean, it sounds like you're apologizing for what they're doing.

 

Commentator B: I'm not. I just don't know what you're gonna do with the budget that the A's have. Who are you gonna get?

 

Commentator A: I'm looking at the spring-training roster⁸. You gotta be kidding me.

 

Commentator B: How so?

 

Commentator A: He looked like a clown out there.

 

Commentator B: Who?

 

Commentator A: Chad Bradford.

 

Billy: Tell me about Bradford.

 

Commentator C: I like him a little bit, but he's a specialist. He's not a guy that you say, "The eighth inning is yours, lefties vs. righties." In my opinion.

 

Commentator B: I don't know what Billy Beane and management understands about him. He only throws the ball about 82, 83 miles an hour. There must be something--

 

Commentator A: He is a freak, and not in a good way. Let me ask you this.

 

Commentator C: Talking about trying to win a division⁹. We're counting on David to be the guy he was. I have my doubts. He's gotten old. That's why he's not in New York anymore, not in Cleveland anymore.

 

Commentator B: We paid him the money we should've been giving to Johnny Damon.

 

Commentator A: Hey. Jeremy Giambi. That's the one to worry about. You know, he gets comps up and down Vegas more than in Oakland. That should tell you something right there. Isn't that the deal with these guys? He has one good year. And he gets a huge offer and then he gets traded.

 

Art: Bob.

 

Bob: Harder.

 

Man: Billy, we have to talk about Hatteberg.

 

Billy: Go.

 

Man: There's just no feel for the spot. I think it's a long shot that he can be a big-league first baseman.

 

Billy: It's day one of the first week. You can't judge this yet.

 

Art: No, I think we can judge it. I mean, I like him, you know, but I can judge him. First base is the moon to him.

 

Billy: It wasn't to Giambi. Giambi's the worst first baseman in baseball.

 

Art: Gonna compare him to Giambi?

 

Wash: What are we talking about?

 

Billy: All right. What do you think, Wash?

 

Wash: The nice way to say it is he lacks confidence.

 

Billy: Well, give him some.

 

Wash: I'll do that, but we got Pena, who can play first. And he's looking mighty¹⁰ good out there.

 

Billy: We wanna go with Hattie. We got six weeks.

 

1. intangible: 无形的东西。

 

2. discount: 漠视；低估，贬损。请看例句：In his plans he discounted the expense.（他在计划中没有考虑费用。）

 

3. catastrophic: 惨败的。

 

4. T-ball: 软式垒球。

 

5. inning: <棒球> 局。

 

6. long shot: 远镜，远拍；没有希望的候选人。

 

7. mighty: 很，非常。请看例句：He thought himself mighty clever.（他自以为聪明得不得了。）

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