Catching up with WSU and Moneyball legend Scott Hatteberg (2024)

MORE THAN 20 YEARS have passed since Michael Lewis released his best-selling book, "Moneyball," thatexaminedinefficiencies in how Major League teams were constructed and players evaluated. In short, the back of the baseball cards you collected as a kid didn't quite tell the whole story of player productivity.

OldCougar Scott Hatteberg was the focus of the book's eighth chapter -- and akeycharacter in the subsequent movie adaptation -- because he wasa prime, and heroic, exampleof the innovative ways Billy Beane and the Oakland A's were crunching numbers.

"I grew up such a fan of the game, baseball cards, etc. and players were really just valued with whatever the back of that baseball card showed," Hatteberg told Cougfan.com in a phone interviewlast month from Phoenix, where he was scouting for the A's at the MLB Draft Combine.

"And that was essentially the groundwork for valuing players for that first 100 years … When I got to Oakland, Billy Beane had it different. For him, it was a forced change. They had limitations of money and wanting to compete so he was forced to look outside the box, and this is what he came up with."

Perhaps hard to believe, but Hatteberg is now 54, the father of not one, but two, WSU grads and adaughter who is playing soccer at Arizona. For baseball fans, though, he's forever the 32-year-old Oakland A's first baseman who came off the bench in September 2002 to hit a walk off, pinch-hit homer to give the A's a 20th-straight victory to break the Major League record.

Heading toward that 2002 season, Hatteberg appeared on his way out of baseball. Nerve damage in his elbowdiminished his throwing ability as a catcher and he'd never played another position. OnDecember 19, 2001,Boston tradedhim to the Rockies for Pokey Reese, but Hatteberg didn't like the fit and two days later was granted his release. Little did he know that Beane had beenstudying him in detail -- and, more specifically,Hatteberg's uncannyability to get on base. Beane wanted Hatteberg to be the first baseman for the A's.

"I was a pawn in this whole thing. I did things that were instinctive to me and it turned out that it was a production that was undervalued in the market," said Hatteberg, who remains as friendly, upbeat and conversational as he was while playing for Bobo Brayton's Cougars more than three decades ago.

"I knew catching wasn't going to be the same and a position change was possibly in the works and he (Beane) was offering it. The problem was, the guy I was replacing was the reigning AL MVP, Jason Giambi, who was the greatest hitter on the planet. Honestly, my first impressions of Billy was, 'this guy's nuts.' He was offering me more money than what was being offered at that point, so I jumped on it before he changed his mind."

Related: Catching up with WSU baseball legend John Olerud

Hatteberg couldn't throw rockets to second anymore but he could get on base. He finished his big league career with a .273/.361/.410 stat line and a .772 OPS. The league average for OPS (on base + slugging) is .705.

"What Billy did so well, I think and that history will say, he found values in the market, he looked at markets differently and found what's undervalued," Hatteberg said. "I happened to be one of those guys that fell into the island of misfit toys … he was a smart guy and he's got balls. So it's kind of the best of both worlds for Billy."

COUGFAN.com: One of the best scenes in the movie Moneyball is the scene where Billy Beane and Ron Washington stop by your house on Christmas Eve and basically offer you a contract. How close to real life was that?

Hatteberg: They did put some Hollywood hot sauce on how the whole thing went down ... I remember talking to Billy (by phone) late Christmas Eve, and Christmas came the next morning and he called me, adamant about having me come over and play first base. He wanted to give me at bats, he was very adamant about getting me the at bats and that's exactly what I wanted to hear …I didn't meet Ron Washington until later, but we got to be really tight. I don't think I could have pulled off the position change without him, he's just such an amazing coach. He's just one of those special talents as far as teaching defense.Here's the scene:

COUGFAN.com: You're not playing anymore but you're still in baseball. What all are you doing?

Hatteberg: I work for the A's. I'm a special assistant to our GM. I do a lot of scouting and then I also do some player development stuff more toward after the draft.

COUGFAN.com: What does your work with the Athletics entail throughout the year?

Hatteberg: Spring training, I am kind of another coach, so I'll spend some time down in Arizona, both on the Major League side and the minor league side. I spend most of February and March in uniform and then I trace through the amateurs. I'll run the country and try to catch the top 80 or so kids and put them in order. After that runs its course, I'll get back to work with some of the A's affiliates with on-the-field type stuff.

COUGFAN.com: Where's home base for you currently?

Hatteberg: I'm in Gig Harbor, Washington. We have three girls, two of them are out of school and my youngest one, Ella, is still in school and she's playing soccer at the University of Arizona. The two out of school (Sophia and Lauren) are both WSU graduates -- they loved their time in Pullman. The youngest is the first one to break the chain, but they loved their time there and still get back to Pullman when they can.

COUGFAN.com: You shared an interesting story on an A's broadcast a few years back on the baseball bat you hit your famous walk-off home run on the night the A's won their 20th game in a row, breaking the American League record that still stands.

Hatteberg: I had a Louisville Slugger contract that I signed in 1991 and back then and even through the 90s … Louisville kind of dominated the bat market. If you signed with them, it was usually a 25-year deal, most players wouldn't even outplay their Louisville contract. When I got to the A's, there were a ton of companies that would come around the clubhouse, little garage bat companies that were starting up to compete for guys. One guy came around and I can't even remember the company but he just made some beautiful bats that looked like furniture, so I called them furniture bats because they looked like a brand new piece of furniture to me.

I'd bring the bat out to BP from time to time, and the ball just jumped off the bat. Fast forward, we've won 19-straight games, and we've just lost this 11-run lead. I'm up in the cage and now I'm getting called to pinch-hit in this huge game. We were on the precipice of winning and setting the record, Jason Grimsley's coming in throwing 99 MPH sinkers, this was a no-win situation and I said to myself, 'I'm taking the furniture bat up there.' I was just looking for a ball up in the zone and maybe hit a double and get in scoring position, he left one up and I hit it freaking good and it went out …

I get up to the clubhouse and we're all celebrating and this old guy comes up to me and reaches his hand out and goes, 'I'm from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and we would like that baseball bat.' And I said, 'oh, yeahhhh,' so I reached in and handed that guy a Louisville Slugger and off he went. I told that story to Michael Lewis, I didn't know who was going to read this book or whatever, Cooperstown apparently read it and they sent the bat back with a note that said, 'we don't except unauthenticated items In the Hall of Fame.'

COUGFAN.com: If the Hall of Fame came calling for the furniture bat again, would you let Cooperstown have it the second time around?

Hatteberg: Yeah, I would totally be good on it, I'd feel nervous to even talk to them anymore. They ended taking my batting gloves, the bases, I feel a little bad still to this day for that, but if they want it, gosh, it's theirs.

COUGFAN.com: Who were some of the most dynamic pitchers you caught and stepped into the batters box with during your time in The Show?

Hatteberg: Pedro [Martinez], this guy was the best. The AL East was so good at that time, it was the middle of the steroid era and the hitters were so dangerous at the point and he had a sub-two ERA... He had the best change up I've ever seen. His command was insane -- he could spot his fastball anywhere he wanted at 97 miles per hour, any time. He had an incredible combination of stuff and savviness, he knew how to pitch to go along with the stuff.

Facing pitchers, well, Randy Johnson scared the absolute piss out of me, I mean, I was a left-handed hitter (Hatteberg said with a chuckle). He was incredibly intimidating. Also, Felix Hernandez. When he hit the scene, I was a little bit older and I thought to myself, if this is the direction pitchers are going, well, this guy is unbelievable.

COUGFAN.com: You played under Bobo Brayton near the twilight of his coaching career at Wazzu. What are some of the funnier stories that have been embedded with you since your time as a Coug?

Hatteberg: It's hard to describe a guy that's just so one-of-a-kind. My favorite stories of him were when we would take trips in buses across Alaska for a month, we lived in bingo halls, and fished at midnight. The guy was bigger than life.

We would always play at a fall tournament in Canada near Calgary. We all slept in tents, it was just a giant campsite. Bobo would cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for us. We were right next to this ice cold river we would take our showers in. My favorite part, he would not have a tent, he'd just have his red Wazzu sleeping bag that he would lean up against a tree and his bald head would be sticking out, and he would just talk to himself. He'd go, "Cougs, we're going to come out tomorrow and blow the doors off," and next thing you'd know, he'd be snoring and he would snore like a gosh dang grizzly bear. Just one of his many stories. He was a legend.

THE BOOK ON HATTEBERG:

• High school: Eisenhower in Yakima
• WSU: Met his wife Elizabeth at Washington State. Spent three seasons (1989-91) incrimson, earning first-team All-Pac-10 honors twice at catcher. Voted Pac-10 North MVP in 1991 when he hit .365 with 21 doubles. Formed a dynamic battery with fellow future Major League Aaron Sele. Inducted into the WSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015.
• Major League Baseball: Drafted 43rd overall in 1991 by Boston. Spent 12 full seasons in The Show and parts of two others -- seven with Boston, four with Oakland and three with Cincinnati. Retired in 2008 with career totals of 1,153 hits, 249 runs, 249 doubles, 106 home runs and 527 RBI.

Related: Bobo Brayton picks the best WSU baseballers of all time