Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo shares passing of ‘Wrong Billy Bean’

Sad news hit the world of Major League Baseball on Tuesday when it was announced that Billy Bean passed away. Bean, a former MLB player, came out as gay shortly after his playing career ended. Recently, he served as MLB’s Senior VP for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Special Assistant to the Commissioner.

It’s important to note that Billy Beane, the longtime Oakland Athletics executive and the subject of Moneyball, is still alive. The two surnames are pronounced the same so, even though they are spelled differently, there’s potential for confusion. Chris “Mad Dog” Russo found this out the hard way while sharing the news of Bean’s death while on the air.

“The word that we’re getting right now is that the general manager of the A’s, Billy Beane may have passed away,” Russo said. Wow. Was he ill? I wasn’t aware of this. I mean, he’s not that old. Geez. Was it sudden? We’ll see if we can get some information. Wow. That is a terrible story. Billy Beane of the A’s. I don’t know anything about it. This is the first I’ve heard.

He’s an historic general manager on a team that, you know, he built very good teams with not a lot to work with, financially. The movie, of course, with Brad Pitt. He’s probably no more than 62 or 3 — 60. Wow. Leukemia. That’s a terrible story. So Billy Beane of the A’s, now, had he taken a leave of absence in the last, whatever it might be? I didn’t even know. I’m sure his cohorts in the sport knew. You know, he’s very close to Cashman so I’m sure Brian knew. I didn’t know if anybody in baseball knew. I didn’t hear any of this and I’m on the baseball channel every day or thereabouts. So, that’s a terrible story of Billy Beane.”

That lasted roughly 90 seconds. Then, after he began to read MLB’s statement on Bean’s passing, Russo realized the mistake.

“Billy, who fought a heroic year-long battle with Acute Leukemia — uh — “That’s the wrong Billy Bean. That’s not the Billy Beane from the A’s.”

After reading more of the statement, Russo again corrected his original mistake.

“That’s the different Billy Bean. Still a terrible story. But that’s not the Beane of the A’s. That’s the Billy Bean who worked for Major League Baseball. It’s a different Billy Bean. So we apologize if we got that screwed up. It’s spelled differently. This Billy Bean is spelled, uh, it’s spelled differently than the other one. ‘Commissioner Manfred called Billy one of the kindest and most respected individuals I’ve ever known and someone who made Baseball a better institution, both on and off the field.’ Great quote from Rob.

“This is a different Billy Bean. This is not the Billy Beane of the A’s. This is the Billy Bean who works in Major League Baseball. An important, I’m not trying to make light of it, but it’s a different one. I apologize for screwing that up.”

[MLB on X]