Report: Giants' Magowan to step down
05/14/2008 5:05 PM ET
By Chris Haft / MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants managing general partner Peter Magowan is poised to step down from his leadership post, according to a report in Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle.
The Chronicle's investigative team of Philip Matier and Andrew Ross reported that the Giants' 30 investors have been summoned to a Friday morning meeting at AT&T Park to discuss proposed investments -- but the real reason for the meeting is the announcement of Magowan's impending retirement.
It's believed that Magowan, 66, would offer his shares in the club to others in the Giants' ownership group. Rumors of Magowan's retirement have recently spread, and last week Staci Slaughter, the Giants' senior vice president of communications, acknowledged to the Chronicle that he occasionally has considered stepping down. Wednesday, Slaughter reserved comment beyond citing that statement.
Any change in the Giants' ownership structure would have to be approved by a vote involving the other 29 teams.
Magowan, a Giants fan since his youth in New York City, led a group of investors that purchased the team from Bob Lurie and prevented it from moving to Tampa-St. Petersburg after the 1992 season. Shortly afterward, the Giants signed left fielder Barry Bonds as a free agent, resuscitating the franchise. The Giants' revival accelerated as Magowan and his associates successfully engineered the 1996 vote that approved the construction of AT&T (then Pacific Bell) Park, which opened in 2000.
Magowan presided over an eight-year run of success (1997-2004) that was unmatched since the franchise moved to San Francisco in 1958. The Giants reached the postseason four times in that stretch and reached a Wild Card playoff game once while averaging 92 victories per year.
Magowan received unwanted attention when the Mitchell Report, which examined the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, declared that he and general manager Brian Sabean did not sufficiently follow through on suspicions of Bonds' alleged steroid use. Commissioner Bud Selig said last month that management officials implicated in the Mitchell Report may escape fines and suspensions in lieu of community service.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
