Longtime San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan dies

By JOSH DUBOW
January 27, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Peter Magowan, the lifelong Giants fan who formed the ownership group that kept the team in San Francisco with a sparkling waterfront ballpark, died Sunday after a battle with cancer. He was 76.

Magowan was a fan ever since going to games at the Polo Grounds in New York and then played a critical role in the team’s success over the last quarter-century.

“During a tenuous period for the franchise, Peter stepped up and led the group that purchased the Giants and kept them in San Francisco,” commissioner Rob Manfred said. “With groundbreaking vision, he then guided the effort that resulted in a ballpark that became a landmark for the city. In his 16 seasons of leadership, Peter oversaw a winning, civic-minded ballclub that represented the spirit of San Francisco. The foundation created under his direction helped make the Giants the model club they remain today.”

Magowan helped form the ownership group that bought the franchise for $100 million from Bob Lurie in December 1992 to keep the team from moving to Tampa Bay. One of his first moves was signing Barry Bonds to a six-year, $43.5 million free agent deal even before he formally completed the purchase of the team.

With the game’s greatest slugger in place, the Giants went on to have great success and Magowan put together a plan to build a privately funded ballpark on the water in downtown San Francisco. That park, the first in years built without direct public funding, opened in 2000 and became one of the jewels of the game.

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