I still haven’t been able to find out much more info than we heard last night. Neukom has been forced out by The Giants Executive Committee. The reasons have to do with poor communication and making decisions, mostly financial, without consulting the committee.
I’ve got no idea who is on the committee, what power they wield in day to day operations or what their expectations were of Neukom. Maybe he was brazenly shunning their input, ignoring their recommendations and failing to collaborate or even communicate major financial decisions to them. Since it looks like they hold some type of obvious power over whether he keeps or loses his position, that was probably a pretty big error on his part. I mean, how many of us could do the things listed above in our own workplaces and still retain our jobs? We’d all be fired….
So if all of that is true, I can at least see where the *committee* is coming from. But as a fan of the team and the game, this decision turns my stomach……
When Neukom took over for Magowan in October of 2008 he was walking into a disorganized mess. The team was still stuck in the transition from the steroid era, they were drowning in terrible contracts, the fan base was disillusioned and the team had just completed it’s 4th straight losing season. So he rolled up his sleeves, straightened his bow tie, and went to work. He wrote “The Giants Way” and made it the guiding constitution of the organization. At the time, it was mocked by many as some sort of corny Boy Scout pledge of allegiance. And yet as last season wore on and we ended up winning the World Series, we came to find out how important The Giants Way was to establishing order and purpose back to the organization….
Personally, I was drawn to his appreciation of Sabermetrics. I think he had a huge influence in helping Sabean use these complex numbers that help evaluate talent and statistics in today’s game. I think this had a direct impact on the turnaround of the franchise…….
Oh, and as a fan I was fairly happy with the fact that the team won a World Series on his watch. And since then he has made financial decisions with a clear intent to continue to try to help the team improve and not just rest on their laurels on last year. As a fan, that’s what you want your owner to do. As a *Committee Member*, you are angered by this and prefer the money be diverted to a Rainy Day Fund. Please, can someone explain to me what the hell that is?
But my full appreciation for Bow Tie came last August when I read one of WilcoJoe’s posts from the Houston Series he attended. I’ve re-posted it below. Besides the fact that we get a true glimpse of what kind of guy he is (a fan, just like all of us) I was struck by the metaphor of the moment: He’s sitting alone at a road game–no committee members in sight. While he’s consumed with the details of an 11 inning nail biter, the *committee members* and Baer are probably holed up in some office in San Francisco pouring over the latest financial statements of the team. I wonder if they even had the game on……
wilcojoe said, on August 21, 2011:
“…I was really enamored by him (Neukom) sitting there by himself for the entire 11 innings…You know they always show shots of Larry Baer at AT&T and he’s always gabbing with someone.. It’s a wonder he’s never been hit in the head by a Cody Ross bat…The Astros soon to be former owner McLane sits in the first row behind homeplate, so as to always be in the camera’s angle..Plus he leaves everygame around the 6th inning…But seeing Neukom there, cupping hands to mouth, quietly cheering on his team was a revelation to me…The guy is probably as big a fan as all of us here…That’s the kind of leader you hope to have, but rarely will ever see…Especially in today’s big business of professional sports.”
As a fan of the team and as someone who loves the game of baseball, I’m disgusted by the news that came out last night……….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I thought it was a great idea for the Showtime show, but I think it may come back to bite us this year if it has not already…maybe the others in the ownership group got jealous of Neukom’s presence and decided he was hogging the limelight.
He clearly pushed payroll way more than ownership ever had it before and maybe the little-minded other owners used that against Neukom, even though the cash they raked in after a championship was significant.
I think this is a bad sign about grabbing a big-time free agent and maybe even giving Sabes the power to make his own deals….I don’t like it. Neukom will be sorely missed…
Not sure this is the whole story. From what I read, the ownership group also wants Neuk to sell them his stake in the Giants. Neukom has been strongly against the sale of the SJ rights so I expect this group of coin collectors to now sell the territorial rights. There are at least two corporations for the Giants, one for Baseball operations and one for the ballpark for sure. I’m not completely sure but I think that not all in team the ownership group are also part of the stadium group. If so, some aren’t making anything for offseason events and/or the garlic fries. The whole structure of the Giants owners and finances have been kind of a reporting it only when they have to.
It is very difficult for season ticket holders to boycott because a large part of that group are Charter Seat holders (I think it was about 15,000 when they opened the park). Anyone that owns a CSL paid anywhere from $1,000 to 20,000 a seat. My Club level seats were originally 5,000 per. As part of the agreement, if you don’t buy your tickets for a season you forfeit your investment. You can sell your rights but so what, the person that buys them has to pony up for the season tix. So the Giants are pretty much guaranteed at least 15,000 seats sold per game no matter what happens on the field or front office.
That should read – not all in the team ownership group, not – in team the ownership group. Maybe it’s time to switch from coffee to beer.
As you mention Craig, my first ? was who the f is part of this “exec committee” we hear so much about?
It usually turns out it really is “the money, not the principle” of the old adage.
Can’t believe from the way SF is raking in the dough and how popular the team and its gear is right now, the bean counters could be unhappy. STFU and laugh all the way to the bank…esp if you own it in the first place.
Neukom was a sabermetrics guy who may have discouraged sabesmetrics? Now I’m really bummed.
huh? The way I have always understood it is that he’s a guy who embraced Sabermetric stats and who actively worked with the organization on using them to evaluate talent…
Sabean? I don’t think so.
actually Sabean has been on KNBR discussing saberstats and how he used them the last couple of years. I’ve also heard the KNBR guys mention it. Maybe it on a very basic level but this is a guy who only considered the most basic batting and pitching stats until recently….
Right, that’s why I was lamenting Neukom’s departure. The original comment was in praise of the positive influence you suggested he had on Sabean.
BF, your read on this is spot on. I’m reminded of the line in Butch Cassidy after they’ve been chased for days by the posse, it’s getting closer — “Who ARE those guys?” There’s supposedly 32 investors in the Giants, which I assume means almost all are limited partners, because the Giants organization is apparently a limited partnership, whether there is another entity owning the stadium, that is beside the point and would not be unusual. The fact is that for a team we have allegiance to and many of us have followed closely since we were kids, the fans have barely a clue who really runs it when push comes to shove. Before, we knew who to blame or praise. Stoneham (blame), Lurie (mostly praise). For the A’s, we know Beane runs it, Wolff fronts it, and Fisher is the real money behind it. The Giants? The Burns daughters supposedly have the most ownership %, but that doesn’t necessarily mean ithey ultimately have control when push comes to shove. This team is selling out the season, selling millions in licensed goods, raking in parking and concession and radio/TV revenue. And they have eyes to build an arena across the road to attract the Warriors. Those all seem like good results on the business side. Yet, Neukom gets axed as Managing Partner and is asked to sell his partnership interest (aka you’re OUTTA HERE) — and fans have no clue whothehell these 10 people are that just basically fired him less than a year after he guided the team to holding the WS trophy. “Rainy Day” fund or egos, whatever caused this quake, IMO the cloak and dagger is disturbing, and just the way the Giants owners want it…
When Snarrk realizes that this jeopardizes Bochy and Sabean, he’ll feel differently…
Et tu Brutus?
BTW, that’s Et tu, Brute
You haven’t a clue what this means for them, and neither does anybody else outside the board room door…
You’re doing a helluva lot of meaningless babble on this, pal. The point is that a change OBVIOUSLY leaves everybody up in the air, most importantly the men who run the show. As lame ducks after this year, it certainly does jeopardize thir situation, OBVIOUSLY depending on who takes over.
The foolishness is the usual paranoia as to why Neukom was asked to go. There could be perfectly valid reasons, and not all of them are by rule any business of the blogosphere.
Is someone here going to be able to listen to KNBR or Comcast bayarea to see/hear the news conference at 11:00. My employer set the internet not to be able to stream any radio stations. I think this move does not bode well for young players. According to the Murphy and Mack show this morning, Neuk was the one behind getting the young players developed. If the Giants throw a ton of money at Beltran…
Just set your browser on “smoke and mirrors”, you won’t miss anything from the news conference…
Lots of smoke…..
I was going to go all political on this, reflecting broader trends in society, then I got bored with the sound of my own voice, so to speak, already tired of the tedium of public discourse.
NO MORE TEXAS! [weak attempt at bumpersticker humor, or humour, for Eddddd. Where IS Edddddd?]
Baer’s THE MAN! His star ascends!
I think the pic I just added to the main thread captures what Bow Tie is all about…..
He’ll always be BOW TIE.
The Burns girls allegedly have by far the most shares. so they have to have some sort of say in this. they were hooting with barry bonds in the seats a few games ago. it does look exactly like a money grab by the owners, nothing else. i’m curious how they can “make” neukom sell his share. the presser will be sound and fury signifying nothing. we’ll just have to wait and see how events play out. club house effects?
Partnership agreements typically have provisions to deal with the ouster of general and limited partners. Usually it’s because of some malfeasance or doing things that exceed granted authority, etc. I’m not saying that happened here, it maybe is just a case of making it known that he’s not welcome anymore even as a passive owner due to whatever internal dustup there was that caused him to be removed as Managing GP. The recent, embarrassing embezzlement brouhaha in the payroll office did not help put a shine on Neukom’s management and oversight skills, though it did not seem to impact teflon Larry. Partnership agreements typically have a method to value the exiting partner’s ownership share, based on previously agreed value and/or required, periodic independent valuation of the business…
You know, timing is everything.. and I can’t see any good in the axing and hanging dirty laundry out there while the Team is struggling to still do something with this season… though remote…. I can only think that the SUITS have thrown in the towel and wanted to get their pound of flesh while before the last game… Well someone should remind these idiots that the season isn’t over yet and the only thing they accomplished is upset fans and more importantly the players who are still hanging on to a miracle.. again though remote….
Way to go guys!
Palace revolt. Tribalist Baer and the beancounters. Frightful thought, Baer being the new face of the ownership group. He’s nothing but a moneyman. Appears the profiteers were upset about not being consulted vis Neukom upping the overall payroll level to middle of the road large but not huge market status.
Some people are only in it for the money. Too bad. This franchise had just begun to get things sorted out, tending towards major power status in MLB. Comes da revolution and all these money moguls will be thrown out on their collective asses, with team ownership going the fanbase subscription route ala the Sooper Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.
As a *Committee Member*, you are angered by this and prefer the money be diverted to a Rainy Day Fund.
——————————————————————————————————————————
That’s not how I read it. It looks to me they didn’t mind the monetary increase in payroll, just wished they had been consulted
With Cell phones important people demand to be “consulted.”……frequently!
Ted—- the “rainy day fund” comment was from Purdy’s story. His words, not mine. He’s the guy who broke the story so I’m assuming he had a context to call it that….
Probably. I only read Schulman’s account
Maybe the Burns girls wanted to “play the kids” ;-).. or, remember, Neuk was said to have given his instant stamp of approval on eating Rowand’s contract. With Zitboy not pitching by management choice,, the team is paying over 30 million dollars for nothing. That might not sit well with the group.
even if you play zito and rowand you’re getting nothing or close to it. the money’s spent. it’s gone. whether they’re on the team or not.
The Rowand/Zito decisions were made long ago. By Magowan.
I wonder if there Neuk was making noise about dumping Zito as well, and the ‘group’ didn’t like that. If the ‘group’ thinks those guys should be playing solely based on the money owed, then they are stupid beyond belief.
This doesn’t look to play out very well. Baer is a marketing guy.
That tripe about Sabes going to Neukom and “immediately” getting his OK to DFA Gamer the night before the 9/1 playoff roster deadling was PR, nothing more. As if that choice and decision hadn’t been fully debated internally since at least the end of last season and decision already conditionally made. If it weren’t that way, then the front office would be clueless and deserves to be sacked. Here it is: Sabes, suddenly, late in Gamer’s 4th year of laggard play, the team in free fall, had a light bulb go off and decided to DFA him right before the deadline, so breathlessly informed BowTie of that decision for the very first time without any prior discussions and decision in the can. And, BowTie, without even stroking his white hair and without blinking, immediately says — “Damn, yes, Sabes, I had no clue about doing that, but full speed ahead, why not? Screw the $14 mill we owe him, heck I wasn’t in this chair when we signed his ass, I’ll e-mail the owners in a day or two”…
So Snarkker knows how it went in the inner sanctum on the night of 8/31… unauthorized financial decisions seems to be the only thing reasonably certain about why Neukom is being forced ouut. A totally plausible POSSIBILTY is that the DFAing ( as it turns out, with zero compensation via trades) of Rowand and Tejada and paying Zito to not pitch would not sit well with the group. Over 30 milion without performance or compensation would rather fucking irk any partner with a brain, One of the alternate theories seems to be moving in the predictable direction of Baer as scheming back stabber..
Neukom responded to a question about Gamer’s release in the news conference. You can listen to it. He indicated it was a tough decision that took a long time of analysis before it happened Obviously, from his own words, it was not something “immediate”, as I and any other reasonable person would assume. If the Exec Comm was not in the loop on that situation, which I would find incredible, the Giants do have some serious FO issues…
“Scheming back stabber” is so Shakespearen!
Unbelievable that anyone would believe one word on how this went down, let alone the Snarkker. It was all lies,, ferchrissakes.
Did any of you hear about this?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6651634
12 playoff teams? No more divisions? Forward to the past? It probably won’t happen, but what a crock of shit.
I read about that a while back. I think in Jenkins’s 3-Dot Lounge. He didn’t take it too seriously as I remember
Crock of BLEEP!
Just to be clear, when I wrote above ” It looks to me they didn’t mind the monetary increase in payroll, just wished they had been consulted” I meant that’s how I interpreted what I read. Not what I believe. If the Giants were 8 games up in the division right now, I don’t believe we’d be having this conversation. Executive Committe has probably been pissed off all year but clamped up because of the season’s earlier record. But they’ll say whatever they want, we’ll never know exactly what transpired.
Smoke and MIrrors show news conference now going on KNBR. BowTie is getting cashed out of the organization totally. He’ll be a season tix holder, that’s it. No new MGP, Baer will report directly to the Exec Board. That means a power grab by the major owners. That is not an improvement in management flexibility or efficiency. Now we’ll really have management by a faceless committee, a Star Chamber….
Did Neukom say anything or did he just party-line it?
party line. spend more time on his foundation, teach at stanford, time with grandkids etc. And Baer said that it’s not a change of direction. blah blah blah. didn’t listen to all of it as I was going to Clark’s to get a burger and shake. that’s just good eating.
He was a good soldier, BF. Summing up his entire Giants life from kid fan was a bit of a bore. Baer was in full PR mode. The few tough questions from the milquetoast press corps were dodged. Although Neukom did respond, when asked about the reported lack of communication to the Exec Committee, that it was not a problem, with a “from my point of view” or similar type of qualification — so it was not a flat denial. No doubt a major dustup happened. You don’t get shown the door as the Managing Partner and as a partner altogether without some major power crapola going on behind the scenes. If we had some hardass investigative reporting like New York does, we’d find out what the crapola really was, and what it might mean for the team going forward…
Oh, and Baer managed to drop the dreaded “the budget” into the newsconference mix. Like a bad smell, “the budget”, whatever that means and whatever amount it is, always seems to linger around his conversations for public consumption…
Read it in the MERC! You guys know that.
maybe the Tea Party staged a coup at 24 Willie Mays Plaza; next up: Bachmann Burgers (no taxes on them, but they have no beef either, Walter Mondale)
Star Chamber? Snarkk is into Science Fiction.
Anyone know who these Committee members are? I know Jeff Mallett (former Yahoo Exec) and Harmon Burns (franklin Funds) two daughters.
Not precisely. However, some exclusive film was leaked of one of their meetings earlier this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8DGzWxhXRk
BFlav, when does “fairly happy” translate to, ” i cried like a small child?”
Actually, it translates to “I cried like a 3rd grade girl.” Did you ever see a pic of the shirt someone made for me that had that moment screened onto the front of the shirt? Bad look, man.
That reminds me of an MST3K line when they were showing the movie MAROONED. Gregory Peck was doing a Q and A with the press after a new conference and one of them asked him “How did the astronauts take it when you told them the situation?” and he replied (think of Gregory Peck’s voice):
“They wept openly like little babies”.
We should organize a protest, leaving behind a clear msg: throw tons of Farfalle on the field … otherwise known as “Bow-Tie pasta”. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5xbLgg72CBs/STMwumWidJI/AAAAAAAAD5Q/MgPsK2vG3fk/s400/farfalle.jpg
I love Pesto Farfalle.
I think he played the infield when DiMaggio was with the Seals…
Nice one!
Prego…
I envision it to be something like those goofy PETA fur protests where they throw buckets of fake blood all over the place — but Farfalle is much more pleasant, and a relatively easy (and edible) clean up!
That is brilliant brilliant, MrMr. Do it! Do it!
the seagulls will take care of clean up. of course they fill up, drink some water, and KA POW! Fewer seagulls.
Hadn’t thought of that double benefit. Some very creative thinking, ewisco!
Baer did say absolutely no change in the no A’s in San Jose position, fwiw.
Since technically this doesn’t take affect until J-1, as nukes alluded to toward the end, I wonder who is in control of decision making process post season. Baer indicated nothing changes (it’s up to sabes to bring up whom he wants for discussion), which is kind of hard to believe. Payroll went up this year, and SF has a bunch of guys arb-eligible (including romo) who are going to be up for raises.
Plus you stil have rowand and zito to pay off, regardless. I’ve said this last few days, if you aren’t into beltran, you still need a stick like that in the middle of the order to help out sando and posey…unless you are after reyes at the top. Either option (and there are FA guys out there, including Willingham across the bay) are going to cost some $$$.
so I think that is the issue: can you win if everyone is healthy with what you have, or do you need to go out and do something? Ratto made a good point, that SF is at best revenue situation this year, but that it would likely go down next season. So do you push fwd to try and get back to the top of the heap, or pull int the reins and try to do what you can from within to win? And that issue might have more to do with what happened to nukes, imo.
Back to baseball. Another superior job by Timmeh yesterday. And, after the first inning confusion, Sanchez proved to be a pretty decent receiver, and they obviously worked well. Proving again that this stuff about needing a lot of time to get pitchers acclimated with new catchers is a load of bulldust. Sanchez looks like he’s already at least as good, and with a few more MLB starts, soon to be all-around better catcher than Whiteside, though that’s not a great compliment…
too easy, snarkk, to make that kind of judgement off one start (“..this stuff about needing a lot of time…). When tim struggles with command or isn’t getting a certain pitch/location, you’d learn more.
The idea that C are inter changeable at this level I don’t accept…certain guys work better with others.. You can’t mix in a JC point guard with NBA shooters.
No one C can go 162, and it’s not always going to go smoothly when the routine is disrupted as Posey and Linc both readily admit last year. I think that might have something to do with struggles by certain younger SF pitchers, the fact that they don’t have a savvy vet guy to help them out behind the plate.
Willie, you make some nice points, but the fact remains Timmy pitched a fine game yesterday with a guy who never caught him before. The wheels didn’t come off, they rolled well. This staff is turning into a vet staff, but still pretty young. They know what they’re doing. So, I think the catcher/pitcher simpatico thing is way way overblown…
Mike Krukow had an interesting take on this situation. He said with pitchers and catchers, the ideal situation is for one to take on the father’s role, one to take on the son’s. In the case of Sanchez’s relative lack of experience, he basically has to let the pitchers call their own game for a period of time.
If (if!) the Chron account of the presser is accurate, I already have a bone to pick with Baer, a language bone:
“The perspective of winning is foremost, tantamount, always will be.”
Tantamount? Tantamount to what?
Paramount. Winning is paramount. And not just the perspective of winning: how about actual winning? But when you are intent on corporatespeak, your mind does go numb. And maybe your heart, too, if not careful.
Neukom was the former chief counsel for microsoft so I would assume he knew that the actions he took were well within his purview. Maybe he outfoxed the rest of the ownership group with his contactual agreement and they were left with no recourse but dismissal for someone they apparently felt was not operating in their best interests. If their interests are hoarding cash that is their perogative whether we as fans agree or not.
Whatever, To win you need winners and Neukom always struck me as relentlessly focused on victory. This sucks.
I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall during that Sopranos exec committee sitdown. I wonder who played Phil Leotardo? (Still wincing at the sound of his head getting run over at the gas station.)
Plus I always liked the way he showed up in WA when Lincecum had his hearing for hitting the bud. I think he was there on business anyway but that was a cool move on his part.
Neukom story does not even make MLB headlines at ESPN website, either y’day or today. #clueless #EastCoast_bias
Tweet from Baggs:
Tim Kawakami: The truth about the San Francisco Giants and Bill Neukom http://t.co/mNlArl3Y
I guess we can’t handle the truth.
The truth is, no one knows what really happened or why . . .
Yes despite the enticing title, there’s no great “truth” in the column
One thing nobody’s talking about much is that they are booting him from the partnership, not just his manager role. He’s not only been kicked out of the corner office, he’s outta the building. So, they have to pay him his ownership share to get out — the Current value of it, not what he paid into it 7 or 8 years ago. I don’t know what % he has, I saw something he might have up to 20%, that seems high. At least he’s one of the top owners in terms of %. Say he’s got 8%. 8% of say, a $700 million current value of the Giants operation is pushing $60 million. That’s a fair amount of coin. They don’t just go into petty cash or operating funds to pay that off, and keep on truckin’. Unless the agreement allows him to get paid off over time (doubtful), they’ll have to get a new investor(s) in quickly to recapitalize the business for at least the amount they had to give him to go away. Or get a loan for that amount pending new partner contributions…
Ok, for me it’s time to start transmitting positive vibs to the G-Men to keep the line of wins moving.
Ryan has deserved wins in his last 2 starts ;so if Beltran/Pablo/Cody have the continued fire in their
belly, they will prevail for him… BTW Tulo and Helton are probably not in the lineup…..
It would be sweet for the D-Back to wake up in the morning seeing the Giants closer in the rearview mirror.
Get to 3 or 4 out by 9/23 and MLB/ESPN will be fighting for the rights to the Giant/D-Back series….
Well,. we do know that Baer and Neuk both lied through their teeth, Cherry picking through the lies is ridiculous and just not doable. What’s most interesting comes from Kawakami- Baer will not be running the team, as Neuk and Magowan did. He’ll take his marching orders from the group- whatever Neuk erred with, they consider it little more serious than Panda hat sales. It was serious stuff ( whatever Neukom did)for them to emasculate the position for his successor.
From what the article says, there won’t BE a successor. Baer is the defacto face of the ‘group’ without the accoutrements of power or prestige.
He’s the puppet with 14 hands shoved up his ass . . .
ouch.. that’s got to hurt!
What a vivid image; too vivid. Is that was is meant by brownian movement?
Chuck thinks backwards! Ouch! Bleep!
That’s what I just said, just not as vividly
Maybe Gamer was a puppet, too. Might account for that batting stance…
Here’s one for you, Twin. Forty years ago today, 21 y.o. Larry Yount (Robin’s older brother), takes the mound for the Astros in the 9th inning. It’s his major league debut. Millan, Garr and Aaron due up. During his warm-up tosses he hurts his arm and has to come out. Never seen in the bigs again..
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/yountla01.shtml
Loo, you are the maestro of these gems!
I like one that Ralph Kiner often cited during Mets games: Babe Ruth pitched one inning, then got hurt or ejected. Some other pitcher comes in (name, anyone?) and, I believe, no-hits the opponents the rest of the way.
Ahhhh. The infamous ‘trillion’ stat. Usually applied to basketball.
1 minite of play, no shots made, no shots attempted, no free throws, no free throws attempted, no offensive rebounds, no defensive rebounds, no fouls, no assists, no blocks.
First one I’ve seen n baseball.
More than 30 years ago took a drunken, middle-of-the-night road trip from Dayton to Chicago w/ my younger brother and his buddy. Our companion was The Sporting News’s Record Book. Perfect for the trip. My point is this: unless the “rules” have changed, I believe that you’re not an “official” Major Leaguer, w/ MLB experience, unless you have one AB. Maybe that used to be a rule. Times change. [cliche alert]
Here’s a theory I’ll float: exec. committee (aka Politburo) learned of Rowand and Tejada axing via the press. That did it. Sabes and Bochy were “covered” because Neuk approved it. I have no evidence whatsoever. Just a hunch.
Certainly possible, Pawlie, but I don’t buy it. The Exec Board certainly had to know that DFAing those guys was possible. Neukom said in the presser that cutting Gamer had been a tough decision and had been considered for a long time. I can’t believe somebody as accomplished as Neukom would have OK’d cutting those two without any prior notice to or input from the main owners long before the trigger actually got pulled. After all, Gamer sucked for a long time. If somehow those DFAs caught the Exec Board unawares, that IMO would just be mind bogglingly bad FO management, and Neukom doesn’t strike me as a rogue type of executive…
But … what would piss them off so much as to buy him out so he’s only a fan, now? They were really so pissed about the $14m we just ate on Rowand, so they force a buy of Bow-tie’s share in retribution? Snarkk’s guesstimate ($60m) doesn’t seem entirely out of line (to me, at least).
I think he must have done something far far worse (in the eyes of ownership). Like, … I dunno … had a knotting orgy with all the rest of the owner’s wives or sumthin’. Bow-ties require some above average mad skillz, ya know.
“knotting orgy” — endless possibilities to conjure in my mind’s eye, or farther south
From the desk of Bill Neukom #SFGiants http://t.co/KOEnTO1Y
Bill sent me a copy of the memo too 🙂
And I thought it was just for me.
ok, ok, should’ve had quotes and attribution; it was a Tweet from the team
It makes you wonder if Neukom manufactured the leak to the press. Maybe he thought: “They’re going to have to fire me during the season, in the full view of everyone, and not in the quiet of some winter day when much fewer people are paying attention.
that’s something I’d do — but my corporate history is littered with flotsam and jetsam and detritus and et cetera
I could totally see that. Neukom is just too smart to get side swiped with this. He goes out with on top with a fan base supporting him and Baer and Sue Burn’s whore daughters look like dipshits. Sue Burns loved Bill Neukom. If she’s still alive there’s no way this happens. I wonder if her daughters have thought for a second about what their mother would have felt about this decision…….
The proof will be in the pudding, so to speak, regarding Baer’s statement, regarding how important winning is to the exec. committee. The Giants’ payroll is at 120 million. What will it be next season? No DeRosa and no Tejada will trim off 12 million. Ross is an open question. So is Affeldt. Losing those 4 would trim about 23 million off payroll. If the Giants are at about 100 million in payroll next season, that is a huge disappointment to the fans. It means no free agent hitter was signed, obviously. The Giants would at least have to have the ethics to lower ticket prices at that point. I paid 42 dollars to sit in the upperdeck to watch the Giants play the Mets this season.
How much for the Panda hat?
Don’t you know? It’s the “Panda Hat dept.” The SF Giants Corporation “baseball dept.” tries to win baseball games on the field, and the Panda Hat dept. tries to sell more Panda Hats. The Garlic Fries dept. sells lots of garlic fries. Although selling more food cuts into the toilet paper alottment for the restrooms. It’s a tricky algorithm.
… with lots of ministers to administer those ministries.
When all this gets uncovered — about 50 yrs after They™ release what really happened to Kennedy — I think we’ll find that the same Chinese group trying to buy the Dodgers is behind this. Maybe I’ve watched “Manchurian Candidate” just once too often.
Ted, movie peritus* extraordinaire, will have a good line from the movie.
Been doing research on Vatican II, which featured many experts, or periti, who attended but could not vote. The things you learn here.
Neukom at today’s press conference: “Larry Baer is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”
Ah, when anything about the Giants’s ’11 season bums me out, I just look at that ring in the upper right corner of the blog. Always brings a nice feeling. That ring needs to stay up there as long as this blog exists. And when the SF Giants win their next World Series, just add that ring to the other ring….two photos in the corner of the blog….and so on so forth.
No lie. And if I really get in a slump, I can pull out thrillingly singular copies of the Chronicle from last October and November, sent by one of youse guys, for which I remain in a debt of gratitude.
I wonder what happens to “The Giants Way”. Does everyone in the organization just toss it in the waste paper basket? Sue Burns loved Bill Neukom. I wonder how much thought her two whore daughters gave to how their mom would have felt about this decision…….
Probably goes the way of Mao’s Red Book and Gaddafi’s Green Book.
Showtime has got to be happy. With a return to the playoffs for the World Champs unlikely this provides a final act made for TV.
According to the graphic on Colorado TV, Arizona is 87-64 and the Giants are 79-78.
Nice work…
A rocket just landed in the Rockies bleaches.. Pablo rocketman…………..2-0
Burning out his fuse up here alone…
Pour it on. As I suspected, Colorado is totally sweep-able right now. As long as we keep winning it is totally conceivable that we make the last week of the season interesting. Come on, how likely is it that AZ and Atlanta go on the same 14-2 streak we are in the middle of? 🙂
Every molecule in my body or near it wishes that is so: 14-2.
Best of all possible worlds: Giants repeat as World Series winners and the Politburo has to watch a gloating Neukom in another glorious parade. (He’s on the clock, officially, until 12/31/11, or so it is claimed.)
Well Flav, the infamous ’64 Phils were 6.5 up (6 in the loss column) with 12 to go. A 10 game losing streak put them 2.5 back. Jints are a game worse off than that if they win tonight…
I appreciate the 60’s references Loo, but I don’t give a shit about a precedent for this 14-2 dream. If they go 14-2 (it’ll really be 15-2 since they won the game before my post) I’m confident that this will all sort itself out and we will make it back to the playoffs…….
Terry Collins just ripped his Mets; said they “folded it up.” Terry, here’s hoping you have fired the Metropolitans up for their series against the Braves.
Don’t look now but Voggy has higher BA than three in the lineup.
Same can be said about you, me and the man on the moon.
Pablo doesn’t seem too troubled by the management change
All it would take is a little doubt planted in Arizona’s heads and a suspicious fear that the Giants have awakened…..
Internally I’m beginning to feel the confidence building in the Team…. EVERY consecutive win can transform this Team into one very very confident bunch… hoping for a sleepless D-Back night.
D-Z, vogs should get a W, but this guy is running on E-gypt. boch was out of the dugout with the hook before that rocket landed in pablo’s glove,. good thing they got him 7 so early, and edlefsen bails him out with the GIDP, and covers first to boot.
Boston has lost what, 11 of 14?
7-4.. winning…………. but balls fly bigtime in this park…. Bochy will rotate the pen in this game like a turnstile to win this.
Even just getting it to 4 or 5 by time they hit AZ gives them a shot.
I’ll sign up for that one…
and somebody will have to bail out eds….man, I hate this park.
I think Edlefsen may not pitch again unless they’re up or down by 20.
Time to take the aspirins out….. suddenly the fear of no Wilson is creeping thru me.
I’m only monitoring the game online–couldn’t Boche have left Vogs finish the 6th? was he totally done? pitch count was up, but…
I think that last rocket out he made told the story.
He threw a lot, ans the 1st 2 guys in the 5h hit the ball hard.
6th . . .
Thanks for catching me up…
Good Ramon, or bad Ramon?
Imagine a Panda on a unicycle. Imagine him on a bicycle. How bout a tricycle. How bout him hitting the road on a souped up Harley. Triples are always the tough ones. That intentional I.P. was pure respect. I can imagine Sandoval putting up some awesome numbers next season. In fact it doesn’t take a helluva lot of imagination to do that.
No one had more doubters either Stix, all across fandom. And included amongst a few here, who wanted him either in AAA or traded after 2010.
Way to brreak out of a shitty night, Brandon.
I’ll take all the insurance runs we can get….and good for belt too, who wasn’t having a great night.
Ross, btw, is making quite the late contract run himself, just like last year. Two nice hustling plays on the bases.
wow another (near) bomb…fowler dang near had that too.
Well, he finally fooled someone.
Not trying to assume anything here, but for this ‘run at a miracle’ I think the starters need to go deep into their games and not burn out the pen… which I view as a current problem materializing…
Amazing the difference a year makes. Cargo was all the rage last year, getting a lot of baseball media buzz, and this year…..no buzz. He flubbed Panda’s triple. Cool for Panda, though. Cycle is a very cool thing.
What’s even cooler is the “natural” cycle – single-double-triple-homer in sequence. I saw Jim Hickman pull that off in 1963.
Anyone done it in reverse order?
Hah! Jim Fregosi in ’68 . . .
Really? Didn’t know that…
Despite Vatican claims to the contrary, the “natural” cycle can get you in big heap trouble.
wow, he must have been damn near an orginal…did they draft him off another team? Cubs, maybe? Wasn’t he an AS for them once?
Guy I felt bad for was charlie neal, decent IF for dodgers,
remember veal to neal to kanehl?
No histrionics here, Santaigo . . . .
Ballgame!
Well, the G’s gain .5 on everyone.
5 in a row! We’ve only done that thrice all year — once in June, twice in May. This is getting interesting.
Thrice is the thriciest number.
A resounding Marv Albert YES!
Keep it rolling, Gigantes!
G’night, amigos.
Guys are stepping up. A good sign.
Bochy has said he’s going to be pulling his starters earlier. His pen is not overworked-10th in the NL in IP.