Larry Baer

Lawrence M. Baer

• School University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University
• High School Lowell High School (San Francisco)

Biographical Information

Larry Baer has been the Chief Executive Officer of the San Francisco Giants since 2012, when he succeeded Bill Neukom.

His fist brush with baseball came in 1979 when he was still a student at the University of California, Berkeley and he negotiated with mercurial Oakland Athletics owner Charlie O. Finley for the student-run campus station, KALX, to become the official broadcaster of A's games. This came at a low point in the team's history, as Finley was unable to agree with anyone to sponsor the team and had to rely on the underpowered, student-run station to carry his team's games, lest they be completely shut out from the airwaves.

In 1980, he joined the Giants as marketing director, then left to undertake graduate studies at Harvard University's business school. After working for Westinghouse Communications for a few years, he returned to the Giants in 1992 to work with the ownership group bent on preventing the team's move to Tampa, FL. This group, whose best known figure was Peter Magowan, operated a complete turn-around in the franchise's fortunes with the opening of Pacific Bell Park, replacing the unloved Candlestick Park, and three World Series victories in 2010, 2012 and 2014, the latter two after Baer had become the CEO.

On March 4, 2019, he had to take a leave of absence from his duties after a video showing him take physical action against his wife Pamela surfaced on social media. The altercation had taken place a few days earlier, and came at a time when Major League Baseball had meted out harsh penalties to players accused of similar domestic violence. It was thus impossible to turn a blind eye to similar gestures from a top executive. On March 19th, the San Francisco district attorney's office announced that it would not press chargers against Baer, although he was not completely off the hook as MLB was still pursuing its own investigation. On March 26th, Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that Baer would be suspended until July 1st.

Further Reading

• Henry Schulman: "Giants CEO Larry Baer takes leave of absence in light of taped scuffle with wife", The San Francisco Chronicle, March 4, 2019. [1]