The successful film "Moneyball" portrayed the Oakland Athletes and General Manager Billie Beane’s strategy to succeed in the highly competitive economic playing field of Major League Baseball.

This story has relevance to the financial pressures facing the county of Lake.

The movie begins by comparing the on-field payrolls of the Athletics and the Yankees:

– $115 million – New York Yankees;
– $40 million – Oakland Athletics.

Later, we see GM Billie Beane seated in a room with his seven veteran scouts. Collectively, these men have over 150 years of experience evaluating athletes who either desire to wear or currently don a major league uniform.

They are gathered because they must replace three key players who were lost to free agency. Which is to say they were offered much larger salaries by franchises with larger market shares, and they accepted. Go figure.

As the discussion wears on, Beane becomes impatient. He’s exasperated because he believes their thinking is medieval and, in large part, reflects a misunderstanding of how teams win baseball games.

Billie not so subtly interrupts by adding “blah, blah, blah” to the mix.

Enter his head scout, “Gee Billie, was that a suggestion? We’re trying to solve a problem here.”

Beane replies, not like this you’re not. “You’re not even looking at the problem.”

He then goes around the room and asks each scout, “What’s the problem?” Each response is met with disapproval.

Beane opines:” The problem we’re trying to solve is there are rich teams, there are poor teams, there’s fifty feet of crap, and then there’s us.” It’s an unfair game.

Oakland can’t afford to replace a player like Jason Giambi because they don’t have the money that the market demands for another five-time all-star.

He continues, “We are the last dog at the bowl. You see what happens to the runt of the litter. He dies!” “If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we will lose to the Yankees out there” (on the field).

Beane is talking about a game changing shift in how they think about their circumstances.

Oakland’s strategy to overcome their financial constraints included revising how they evaluated players. Beginning in 2002, Beane and his assistants analyzed player statistics from a radically different perspective and established innovative metrics to target athletes who were undervalued given prevailing baseball wisdom.

They looked at their financial circumstances with new eyes and a laser-like focus.

Which finally brings me to the recent community visioning forums and life imitating art.

The presentations by the county administrative officer suggested that the rising costs of providing county services combined with declining inflows to the general fund is the problem.

I am not disputing the conclusion that our current financial situation is unsustainable. The scoreboard tells the story: The county of Lake is down 10 runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

However, I also want to ask, are we certain that we are looking at the problem(s)?

– Is it time to undertake a comprehensive review of the general plan and area plans with an eye on identifying and revising those parts which may be contributing to our economic malaise?

– Bunts and in-field grounders may win you some games, but how do we recruit more “power-hitters” to step up to our economic home plate?

– To borrow a non-baseball cliche, is it time to start thinking out-of-the-box in order to improve the business climate and economic competitiveness of this county?

– How do we dismantle the prevailing thinking which for decades has resulted in Lake County’s finishing last on the economic playing field?

Note: During the 2002 season, the Oakland Athletics set an American League record by winning 20 consecutive games.

Michael Tabacchi lives in Middletown, Calif.