San Francisco Giants President and CEO Larry Baer has taken a leave of absence from the team. The move follows a physical altercation involving his wife that was caught on camera last week.
“Mr. Baer has acknowledged his behavior was unacceptable, apologized to the organization and is committed to taking steps to make sure that this never happens again,” the team’s board of directors said in a statement released Monday morning. “He has also requested, and the Board has accepted, his request to take personal time away from the Giants beginning today.”
During Baer’s absence, the Giants executive team has been asked to manage the club’s day-to-day operations, CBS San Francisco reported.
Baer was seen in a confrontation last Friday with his wife that resulted in her falling out of a chair and onto the ground at a plaza in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco.
Video recorded by a bystander in a public park, which was published by TMZ Sports, shows Baer grabbing something from the hand of his wife, Pam, as she tumbles to the ground and screams “Oh my God, Help!” It then shows others in the park yelling back and forth. Baer appears to yell, “Stop, Pam. Stop.”
“My wife and I had an unfortunate public argument related to a family member & she had an injured foot and she fell off her chair in the course of the argument,” Baer told the San Francisco Chronicle shortly after the video surfaced. “The matter is resolved. It was a squabble over a cell phone. Obviously it’s embarrassing.”
He later issued a statement, saying, “I am truly sorry for the pain that I have brought to my wife, children and to the organization. It is not reflective of the kind of a person that I aspire to be but it happened and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that I never behave in such an inappropriate manner again.”
Pam Baer responded to TMZ, saying “We were having a family fight about someone in my family and that’s it.” Later Friday, she released a statement through her attorney.
“I would like to clarify the events of today,” the statement began. “My husband and I had an argument in public about which we are quite embarrassed. I took his cellphone. He wanted it back and I did not want to give it back. I started to get up and the chair I was sitting in began to tip. Due to an injury I sustained in my foot three days ago, I lost my balance. I did not sustain any injury based on what happened today. Larry and I always have been and still are happily married.”
The San Francisco Police Department said they began “looking into the alleged incident” after the video was published.
Major League Baseball is also investigating the incident, and the team said it is “cooperating fully” in the investigation.
“As leaders in the community, we at the Giants hold ourselves to the highest standards and those standards will guide how we consider this matter moving forward,” the team’s Monday statement said.
Baer, a 61-year-old San Francisco native, co-created a local ownership group and successfully purchased the Giants in 1992. During his tenure, the Giants played in four World Series, winning three championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
