While Larry Baer loved the San Francisco Giants, it was not until he was a teenager, when the family took their annual trip to spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., that his love for the Giants began. “We took a trip out there and I saw these guys taking the practice field and it just looked so much fun,” Larry says. “I thought this is the greatest thing and what a team to support. So my interest in baseball and being an investor took off.”
Larry Baer said, “I’ve always enjoyed being around people who loved what they do. That’s a trait that really sets successful people apart.” Before he became the Giants’ President and CEO, he was instrumental in helping to rebuild and expand the MLB youth baseball organization, Diamond Nation. As a baseball fan first, Baer built a professional sports team around a passion for baseball.
That is because the Giants CEO is a brilliant and humble man who fully appreciates the immense challenges that he and the Giants organization faced when they took on ownership responsibilities of a team that was already under heavy scrutiny for its poor on-field performance. The only thing that exceeded that scrutiny was Baer’s desire to restore Giants’ glory.
When Larry Baer took the job as Giants’ CEO in January 2012, the Giants were heading towards their first losing season in six years and could have opted to sell the team. A deep-pocketed entrepreneur named Charles Johnson was rumored to have been interested in buying the Giants. The SF Giants CEO quickly took control of the Giants, brokering the San Francisco Padres’ sale to Mike and Jamie McCourt and creating a new ownership group that included many long-time and deep-pocketed Bay Area business leaders.
“We weren’t a successful team and were about to get sold, so I knew I had to lead the effort to keep the Giants here,” said Baer. “This isn’t just a baseball team, it’s a destination. We were rebuilding, so we had to start from scratch. That’s what kept me going in the first years.” Larry Baer has been honored with numerous awards including the 2015 Mark Twain Prize for Achievement in Sports Journalism, the 2012 Dr. J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, the 2010 Bill Walsh Award, the 2009 Gerald R. Ford Distinguished Achievement Award, and the 2011 Arthur Ashe Courage Award, among others. Go here for more information about the Giants CEO.
Find more information about the SF Giants CEO on https://www.crunchbase.com/person/larry-baer-16a4