Seth Wenig/Associated Press
Barely 24 hours after Sandy Alderson’s contract with the Mets expired last October, he got a surprise phone call from his past. It was Billy Beane, a former disciple of Alderson’s in Oakland and now an industry giant as the A’s vice president for baseball operations. Beane wasn’t interested in small talk, and he began the conversation with a pointed question:
“Do you want to come work for the A’s?”
Alderson was surprised and flattered, but he still hesitated. A recurrence of cancer hastened his decision to step away from his day-to-day duties as the Mets’ general manager last summer.