Sports Radio Service


		Michael Duca on A's and Giants By Michael Duca September 17, 2011

	Sportstalk: Larry Baer now moves from team president to team managing partner after Bill Nuekom has stepped down. Over the years there have questions about Baer's personality & the way he's run the organization by employees, players, players family, media, front office personnel and even some fans know that Baer can be a bit of glad hander sometimes. Miguel from where you sit how do you size up Baer as the Managing Partner for the team? I don't want to get into a complicated explanation here, but it is a misconception that Baer is going to be the Managing General Partner of the partnership. He can't be that, because he's not a general partner, he's a limited partner. This is the first time the team will be run by someone who is not a significant member of the ownership group, in its entire history. Baer has been around the team since before the Walter Shorenstein/Charles Schwab group bought it from Bob Lurie. Both of those general partners, along with others, are no longer involved with the team. The group has been fluid over the years. Larry Baer worked with Bob Lurie on the failed stadium proposals, and also on the one that succeeded -- he headed up the corporation that built the stadium. He's been the one constant through the years as the Giants moved from Candlestick Point to China Basin, and I don't think there will be much visible change in the face the organization presents to the outside world. Sportstalk: You've had the chance to talk to former Giants team managing partner Bill Neukom over the last three years was his departure based on him not communicating with his other 32 partners, not getting communications on transitions made without telling his partners, not extending the contracts of manager Bruce Bochy and General Manager Brian Sabean or do you find the whole firing of Neukom a bunch of hog wash that Nuekom got this team on track, won a world series last season and kept them competitive even with the injuries of this year. Which Bill Neukom got fired? Again, I honestly don't know what went on behind the scenes. What must be remembered is that there was a principal owner of the team for years, and his name was Harmon Burns. He was much beloved throughout the organization, and when he passed away, his wife Sue took over the role, and was equally beloved. She was Barry Bonds' greatest supporter. Sue passed away a few years ago, Peter Magowan took the fall for the Rowand and Zito contracts as well as the Bonds fallout, and the Burns' families two adult daughters began to learn the ropes. Together, they are still own the largest share of the team. This move suggests to me that they are ready to put their own stamp on the organization, and so they made a move, but they made the safest move possible -- not promoting one of themselves (too young), not promoting another owner (why concede control?), but promoting someone who has been around, who has the recognition, but who is clearly an employee. So, I'm not sure either Bill Neukom got fired. He was extremely popular among employees. They appreciated the new policies and management systems he brought into the organization, they certainly loved winning the World Series, etc. -- but he wasn't there to make the employees happy, he was there to make the Executive Committee happy, and for whatever reason, he did not. Whether it was poor communication (there's public dispute over that), or whether it was Bill's quick decisions, such as getting a second chartered aircraft to take the front office employees to the World Series in Texas last year, which may not have gotten the prior blessing of the rest of the check-writing partners, something happened. Or maybe it was being planned all along. Sometimes, these things take on a life of their own, based on presumed palace intrigue that isn't really there. Neukom has been an owner/investor from the beginning of this ownership group. He's 70 years old. Maybe he just wants to spend more time on the projects he's moving on towards - his foundation and teaching at Stanford Law School. Sportstalk: Do you believe the talk that Larry Baer played a role in the firing of Neukom, that Baer had aspirations of becoming managing partner someday, that Baer had input with the partners in this process and would it surprise if Baer did? I believe that anyone who has devoted 20+ years of their adult life to one enterprise, in a senior management function (remember, he began as a Senior Vice President), has every right to aspire to "running the store" one day. Especially if the organization has flourished as it has while Larry Baer has been there.