Dave Dombrowski And Billy Beane Have An Entertaining GM Rivalry

There are few occasions when you want to hear from your team's general manager. Usually, he's explaining why something went wrong, talking about how the team's trying not to suck, or saying goodbye as he's fired. The best times, though, are in free agency and at the trade deadline—unless your GM's Ruben Amaro—so Tigers and A's fans were pleased to hear from Dave Dombrowski and Billy Beane yesterday.

Beane pushed in his chips for the 2014 season when he traded Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox for a few months of Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes. The A's have the best record in baseball, and adding Boston's ace to Oakland's already-powerful rotation of Jeff Samardzija, Sonny Gray, and Scott Kazmir only improved their World Series hopes. But Dombrowski wasn't going to let everyone hand the AL to the Athletics. The Tigers GM pulled off a trade for Rays ace David Price, giving Detroit an equally impressive collection of starting pitchers. For the neutral fan, could you imagine a seven-game ALCS between these two?

After Dombrowski acquired his reward from the trade deadline, he apparently sent a lighthearted text to Beane, almost tipping his cap in a way before the final stretch of the regular season.

Team rivalries are fun, but general managers needling each other—even jokingly—can be proportionately amusing.

Photo: Getty