Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Peter Magowan



Peter Magowan, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 76, saved the Giants for San Francisco not once, but twice. Yes, we know other men were involved, and it was, especially from a financial perspective, a group effort throughout. But from the start Magowan was the man. He was Ayn Rand's "prime mover," the pioneer who had the vision and was willing to risk his money and his name and his reputation to champion two game- and City-transforming projects, neither of which seemed like anything but a sure thing when he started them. And he delivered.

Oracle Park (or The Ballpark Formerly Known as the 'Bell) stands as a visible monument of that vision and accomplishment, and soon Magowan's likeness will adorn the Wall of Fame alongside such worthies as Mays, McCovey, and Marichal.  It's a most fitting tribute and memorial to the man who, like the team he loved, started out in New York and made the move to San Francisco and fell in love with it-- and then did something about it when that team and that city needed him. In the pantheon of Giants ownership, only Jim Mutrie, who named the team in a moment of exuberance in the 1880s, and Charles Stoneham, whose family name was synonymous with the club for 50 years, loom as large. But if you're talkin' San Francisco, Peter Magowan is your man.

It's one of life's many delightful eccentricities that we, as politically conservative as it is possible to be these days, swear, and have sworn for 54 years, our allegiance to the team representing perhaps the most leftward city in America. Rarely has this been a concern of ours, but in 1992 it came bubbling to the surface as the City, which then was only a few miles away instead of today's 2700, seemed utterly indifferent to the impending loss of its major-league baseball team. It's not simply that "voters refused to spend their money on a plaything for the rich" (or however the boilerplate is etched); many of those voters had good reason for their refusal. It went deeper than that, to a pervasive attitude of "who cares, anyway?"  (And many of those voters had, whether they knew it or not, spent their money to upgrade Candlestick Park for the football 49ers.)

The thought of the "St Petersburg Giants" taking the field on Opening Day 1993 was so galling, so unacceptable, so-- so wrong, on every level, that it prompted our last use of the "F-Bomb" in print (and as we recall, we also referred to then-Senator Connie Mack II, who threatened to revoke baseball's antitrust exemption if the Giants didn't move, as a "two-legged disgrace to his family name"). National League president Bill White, the former Giants first baseman who went on to a great career in Philadelphia and St Louis because the team already had Cepeda and McCovey, convinced 9 of 13 NL owners to-- temporarily, mind you-- reject the St Petersburg sale. He then made the call: "Who among you in San Francisco will stand up?"

"Nobody," we groused.  "Nobody's coming. It's over."

Peter Magowan stood up. The San Francisco Giants took the field on Opening Day 1993.

Seven years later, Peter Magowan and his group of investors opened Pacific Bell Park, the stadium everyone-- and we do mean "everyone"--said couldn't and wouldn't be built. The 'Bell wasn't just the most beautiful ballpark in the land, it was also the lifeline that kept, and, God willing, will keep, the Giants in San Francisco for as long as the game is played.  Peter Magowan knew that his and his investors' money, which prevented the Giants from leaving San Francisco, would not be enough to save the Giants for San Francisco unless this ballpark could be built, and built within a decade. He, and they, did it.

Seventy-six is not old these days. Peter Magowan's family's loss is our loss, too. He was blessed, as we have been blessed, to see the team he'd loved since childhood-- his team, now-- win three world championships after decades of disappointment. He had his mountaintop moment. But he still left us too soon.

Goodbye and Godspeed to a true Giant among men.  Peter Magowan, your legacy is secure. 



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