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It's been 15 years since Billy Beane made a decision that shocked the baseball world and altered the course for two franchise.
In 2002, with the Red Sox trying to lure Beane away from the A's, the GM turned down a five-year, $12.5 million deal to stay in Oakland.
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Since then, Boston has won three World Series titles while the A's have five division titles, but no World Series appearances.
So does Beane, now the executive vice president of baseball operations, have any regrets about the decision he made in the winter of 2002?
“It turned out pretty well for the Red Sox and I have had a great run here and have enjoyed it here a great deal. We’ve had our challenges, mostly stadium related, but we’ve had our successes and failures, but I never regretted the decision I made," Beane told The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo.
Beane went on to explain that part of decision to stay in Oakland was to remain close to his then-teenage daughter.
Oakland Athletics
“I can’t believe it’s been 15 years. Looking back, I knew what I was turning down. I had known John [Henry] even before that meeting and thought the world of him and Tom [Werner]. Look at what happened. Turning it down meant that Theo Epstein was in charge. And we know the rest of the story. I knew that the Red Sox, with John and Tom and Larry [Lucchino] were the best. They had built the best organization in the game and they had this bright young man in Theo who had great ideas of how to build a baseball organization. So no regrets. I got to build our organization with the help of some great people, and foremost for me, I got to watch my daughter grow up. She’s 27 now, but I was there and I didn’t miss a thing,” Beane said.
In October of 2015, after 18 seasons as the general manager of the A's, he turned the reigns over to David Forst and assumed his current role.