Bill Neukom Out; Larry Baer In

As speculation continues on why Giants managing general partner and chief executive officer Bill Neukom is retiring, most fans will no doubt be concerned mostly with what this means for the Giants' on-field product. Since I claim that there's no bigger Giants fan than myself, let me see if I can provide some perspective:

First, on the move itself: Publicly speaking, Neukom and the rest of the Giant's front office deny that he has been "forced out". Rather, Neukom explained it as an "evolutionary process", while incoming CEO Larry Baer promised "business as usual" for the future. Nice of them to put on a rosy show, but the fact is, you don't lead a team to a World Series Championship and then find yourself announcing your surprise retirement less than a year later without having pissed some people off. There is no doubt we are missing plenty of details on why this move transpired.

As far as Giants baseball goes, I have two concerns. Both of them, more likely than not, will be rendered unwarranted. But let's get into what we do maybe-know about the power shift. According to Mark Purdy, who broke the story, the contentious issue was what to do with all the extra money that came in as a result of the World Series (by the way, the Giants won the World Series last year, so everything WILL be fine). Since last November, the Giants have basically been printing money in the form of new jerseys, "Championship Walk" bricks for sale, and the like. As they should -- to the victor goes the spoils. Purdy asserts that Neukom spent the money as he saw fit (increasing player payroll, technology for the baseball department, etc.) without informing the rest of the investing partners first. Maybe they they were just pissed that they heard about his decisions from the newspapers rather than from Neukom himself. Or maybe they disagreed with the actual decisions. If the latter is true, that concerns me a bit. Under Neukom's regime, it was clear that the Giants were trying to capitalize on their Title and strike while the iron was hot to attempt to become a powerhouse, national franchise a la the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies. Despite the inevitable "pink hat" fans that come with the territory, that's what I want my team to do: get rich, get even better, approach dynasty status, and become a team that the rest of the nation hates. We saw the Giants going after this when they allowed the Showtime cameras into their clubhouse, and when they traded their top prospect for Carlos Beltran (which certainly didn't work out, but I still don't blame them for trying to win while their window is open). So if this is the kind of attitude that the Executive Committee who ousted Neukom opposes, well that could be a problem. According to Purdy, they may have wanted to use this extra money as a "rainy day fund". It makes one wonder whether they are looking to maximize profits rather than wins. HOWEVER, maybe the attitude is that the rainy day comes when Lincecum and Cain reach free agency. If that is the case, I completely agree with the Exec Committee. Despite the impotent offense this year, I think the top priority for the offseason should be locking down LinceCain if either of them are willing to discuss it.

My second mild concern regards the stance of Giants ownership on the A's potential move from Oakland to San Jose. From what I've read, Neukom was a bigtime champion of the Giants' territorial rights to the South Bay. If he leaves and that stance is softened, I have a problem with it. I don't want those stinking A's down in San Jose. It's not that I'm concerned about losing fans to them. But there is a ton of corporate money down there, and I don't need the A's grabbing any of it. Other things being equal (i.e. if spent correctly), more money equals more wins, so I want it all for the Giants. Am I being unreasonable?

But I think the Giants are in good hands with Larry Baer at the helm. He's been with the team for nearly two decades. He helped in saving the team from moving to Tampa back in '93. From what I know, no one (other than our lord and savior Barry Bonds, of course) was more responsible for getting the new ballpark built in 2000. At the press conference today, he assured us that the stance on San Jose hasn't moved and that there's no reason to expect payroll to go down.

More than likely, things will remain "business as usual". So I guess what I'm saying is, sorry for wasting your time.

Farewell, Bill Neukom. I wish I paid more attention when you spoke at my 2006 graduation from the University of Puget Sound (in my defense, you hadn't become the Giants' owner yet).