How Billy Bean Has Changed

Even though I am only 30 pages into the book, a big difference between Billy Bean as a high schooler and the grown up Billy Bean has appeared.  As a high schooler Bally Bean had everything going for him, he was batting over 500, he had good grades, and a good social life.  He only had one flaw and that was his anger when he failed.  However, that was easily overlooked because he did not fail that often.  He had a full ride to Stamford for athletics but scouts were quite often evaluating Billy.  But, there was one thing more important to him than baseball, an education.  That changed when the offer from a major league team was dangled in his face.

Billy did not know how to react when a $150,000 signing bonus was offered to him.  He still seem a little hesitant but he ended up signing and making a huge mistake.  He was worried about his education because once he signed with the A's, Stamford took away his scholarship and told him he could not even attend night classes.  Also, he failed to understand that he would end up stuck in the minors for years.  At this point there was only one perk of his choice to go pro, the money.  He and his parents invested the money and lost it and that was when Billy learned the most important lesson he ever had before.  Never do something for the money.  Fortunately he later became a manager in the A's front office, but he could never get back what he had before and he knew it.