Out with Magowan, In With the Neukom

With Magowan feeling a bit old (with 9-10 grandchildren, I have seen both numbers in accounts) and frustrated (not having his side of the story told in the Mitchell Report; imagine that, a lawyer not telling the other side of the story), Peter Magowan on May 16, 2008 announced that he was stepping down as the Giants managing partner as of the last game of the 2008 season for the Giants.

The newcomer coming in to replace him is Bill Neukom, former Chief Legal Counsel at Microsoft (he was a partner in Bill's father's law firm), who will become only the fourth San Francisco Giants owner calling the shots: Stoneham, Lurie, Magowan, and now Neukom. Concurrent with the change, long-timer right-hand man Larry Baer will be promoted to President. Magowan will then serve a year as President Emeritus in 2009.

Giants Thoughts

First off, I just want to say thank you to Peter Magowan from the bottom of my heart for not only helping to keep the Giants in San Francisco (just because the commissioner blocked it doesn't mean that they were permanently blocked if nobody would step forward with enough money to buy the team), but also for figuring out the Gordian Know that is San Francisco politics in order to build our stadium.

Without his leadership and foresight, we would not have one of the best venues in the majors today. People outside of S.F. regularly sing the stadium's praises. And it is still a tourist attraction today, whereas other teams' new stadium quickly got stale and old soon after.

Time for a Cool Change

Still, that said, I think it was time for a change. I like the symbology of Neukom, who is a Tech millionaire (made approximately $100M from Microsoft stock) taking over. Hopefully he can use his extensive Rolodex in the Tech industry to sell new investors who willing to answer the capital calls that will help fuel additional spending while we control Cain and Lincecum. We need to get another good middle of lineup hitter and hopefully we can get one next off-season via free agency or perhaps through a trade of one of our starting pitchers not named Cain or Lincecum. That will probably take more spending money, particularly since attendence is down this season.

And spending has been my main complaint of the Magowan era. Clearly our payroll was hamstrung by Nen and Alfonzo in the mid-2000's and the Giants needed an infusion of cash during that time period to fuel more spending while Bonds was still hitting well, particularly to pick up an RBI guy. Whether it would have been Vlad, Ordonez, or Beltran, the Giants owners needed to setp up to the plate and infuse the team with some cash to get someone. Magowan failed in this regard and that, to me, was the key failing in the post-World Series period, as we did not have to suffer through the Cruz/Tucker era had they put up the cash to get a good RF RBI hitter.

Particularly galling is the fact that there was an additional $7M available to sign Greg Maddux during that period but those funds was not made available so that the Giants could sign a better RF than Hammonds or Tucker, or a better RBI guy than Alfonzo.

That was in the pre-season before the 2004 season and with the tight funds situation due to pay raises, I wrote that the Giants could be bold and use what they had to et one great player or be middling and acquire a boatload of mediocrity. We know how that went.

Other Thoughts

Interestingly, Magowan is retiring at age 66, which is Bill Neukom's age today. I think Neukom is going to be the interim managing partner as Baer prepares (remember, he just got a promotion with this move) to take over when Neukom is done. Magowan probably thought the would last long enough until Baer is ready, but the Balco fallout (or rather Mitchell Report lynching, at least in his eyes) probably took a lot out of him. Plus that's a lot of grandchildren to show love to!