With the passing of late Giants owner Peter Magowan yesterday, former players, coaches, and baseball legends have come forth to remember a great man, and someone San Francisco Giants fans owe a lot to.
A Wall of Fame ceremony was originally planned for Magowan on February 8th at FanFest, but the ceremony will be moved to some time at the beginning of April, where many people will come forth to remember the San Francisco icon. After his passing yesterday, both former Giants manager Dusty Baker and club CEO Larry Baer joined Murph & Mac Monday morning, to reminisce about Magowan.
Baer was one of the closest people to Magowan throughout his time with the Giants. Going back almost thirty-eight years ago, Baer met Magowan at a Giants game. Hearing about Magowan through multiple people within the organization, he was invited by Magowan to join him in his seats to talk baseball.
“He had these seats at Candlestick past the dugout, about the fourth or fifth row,” Baer said. “He and his wife Debby would sit there. It was a cold, windy day and Peter’s hair was blowing all over the place and right off the bat he starts peppering me questions about the team, asking for advice on what moves to make.”
Something Magowan had in common with most of the people who got to know him, were his letters. Both Dusty Baker and Baer remember receiving multiple letters from Magowan, some good and some bad. Magowan would receive letters from fans and would read every one and write back. Magowan was a baseball guy through and through. His love and passion for the game were unlike most owners and upper-management you see in the game today.
“You write Peter a letter and it doesn’t matter if you’re a corporate type, a CEO, or a guy who was sitting in New Jersey who has no chance of buying a ticket to a Giants game,” Baer said. “He would do a hand-written response that he would hand to his assistant Shirley, who would type and send. He would spend hours with some people on the phone, literally to talk about complaints or to talk about the team, thats who he was”.
Because of his love for the game, Magowan was easy to interact with. Larry Baer went on to tell a story about a time where both himself and Magowan were invited to join some Giants fans on a rooftop-bar at Wrigley field. A fan had an entire section and decided to reach out to Magowan.
“We’re talking about letters, one time a guy wrote a letter and said ‘hey I have a rooftop-bar setup at Wrigley field, the Giants are coming into town and I’m a Giants fan. Would you come visit?’ So Peter and I are at the game and we go up to this guy’s rooftop bar in the fourth inning. Anybody who was a Giants fan, Peter just loved interacting with them. So we go over there and join what seemed to be a couple dozen sorority kids partying on the roof.”
Later on in the game, Baer remembers that broadcasters Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow caught them on the broadcast. Because there were no cell phones at the time, both Baer and Magowan’s wives made sure to scold them after the game.
Following Larry Baer, Baker called in to discuss his memories of Magowan and what it was like to work with him during a memorable time in Giants history. At the time Baker was hired to be the next manager of the Giants, he was one of very few African American managers in the league.
Baker remembers Magowan took a chance on him when most people would not have.
“Peter stuck his neck out for me, even with no experience. People were saying ‘Hey, he needs three or four years in the minor leagues’. I never confronted those people, but Peter said: “Hey I believe in Dusty.”
Baker said that Magowan did not listen nor care about what people said about Dusty and the fact they were hiring an African American manager.
“San Francisco was ten times better than a lot of places,” Baker said. “If the team had moved to Tampa, I probably wouldn’t have been hired.”
Baker recalled a time where he and his wife were in financial trouble with the IRS. Magowan helped Baker dig out of his financial crisis and would even loan him a lump of money to do so.
“At the time I was in some IRS trouble. I was fighting and I thought that I was right, but I ended up being wrong like you usually are. Peter came to my defense and actually loaned me a big sum of money to try and pay it off. The IRS wouldn’t accept the money, so I just kept it and eventually gave it back to him when I left the Giants,” Baker said.
Both Baer and Baker have lots of memories of the good times they spent with Magowan, but with that, there were plenty of hard times. During some rough years with the team and the move to a new stadium, there were some tense and troubling moments throughout the organization.
Dusty Baker talked about those hard times and mentioned just how happy he was that Magowan and himself were able to move past those times, and continue to build a friendship that lasted many more years.
“Time doesn’t stop, it doesn’t stop for any of us,” Baker said. “You really have to savor the day and the time and try and be as productive in your days as you can. You have to cherish the time you have with people.”
Many big names throughout the game of baseball have been and will continue to come forward to remember the late, great Peter Magowan. The game of baseball mourns a great man, who did so much for the people and the city of San Francisco.
Thank you, Peter, for all that you did for this organization. You will be missed. pic.twitter.com/19my4suT64
— Bruce Bochy (@BruceBochy) January 28, 2019
A date for the wall of fame ceremony for Magowan is not set, but it is expected to take place sometime at the beginning of the year. Peter Magowan was expected to attend the original ceremony on February 8th, and even wrote a speech for the event, which Larry Baer will now read for everybody in attendance.
Listen to the full interviews below.
