The Cal 100: No. 41 -- Larry Baer
We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.
No. 41: Larry Baer
Cal Sports Connection: Baer was the sports director at KALX, the Cal student radio station, and did play-by-play work for the Oakland A’s while at Cal.
Claim to Fame: He is the president and CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and was a prime member of the ownership group that bought the Giants and prevented them from moving to Florida.
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If not for Larry Baer, would the Giants now be known as the Florida Giants?
If not for Larry Baer, would there be no Oracle Park?
If not for Larry Baer, would Barry Bonds never have worn a Giants uniform?
Rhetorical questions, to be sure, but they are not without serious consideration.
Baer, a 1980 Cal graduate, showed his negotiating power as a Golden Bears junior when he was sports director of KALX, the student radio station. That’s when he convinced Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley to let KALX be the A’s radio voice for the first 16 games of the season, with Baer serving as the play-by-play announcer.
He became the Giants marketing director soon after graduating, but it was after he got his MBA at Harvard that Baer made a major impact with the team.
Then-Giants owner Bob Lurie had agreed to a deal to sell the team to a Tampa Bay group for $115 million, with the team set to move in 1993. Duane Kuiper, a popular Giants TV and radio voice, took a job with the Colorado Rockies for the 1993 season because it appeared the Giants' move was a done deal.
However, Baer and Peter Magowan were the driving forces in creating a seven-member group that purchased the team from Lurie in the fall of 1992, keeping it in San Francisco. Baer was a key player in enlisting additional investors to complete the deal, which, with the help of the National League, became official in January 1993. Kuiper returned to the Giants broadcast booth in 1994.
Larry Baer. Photo by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY Sports
Baer was the team’s executive vice president in 1992 before the sale became official, and he was the leader of the strategy and negotiations that brought Bonds to San Francisco as a free agent. The six-year, $43.75 million contract was signed on December 6, 1992, after Bonds had already won two MVP Awards with the Pirates. He would win five more MVPs with the Giants during his controversial career.
Baer became the Giants president in 2008 and added the title of CEO in 2012, putting him in charge of the team’s day-to-day activities. The Giants won three World Series championships (2010, 2012, 2014) while Baer was a prominent team executive.
Perhaps more significant was his role in creating the downtown ballpark. He directed the development and design of the first privately financed major league ballpark, which opened in 2000 as Pacific Bell Park and is now Oracle Park.
He is also responsible for a number of benefits involving the Giants, and in 2014, Baer received an "Excellence in Achievement" award from Cal.
--The Cal 100: No. 42 -- Don Bowden
Cover photo of Larry Baer by Kelley L Cox, USA TODAY Sports
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