On Friday, Larry Baer, the CEO of the San Francisco Giants, was caught on tape having a loud, public argument with his wife. In the video he tried to rip a cell phone out of her hands, which caused her to tumble off of her chair and to the ground as she screamed “help me!”
Soon after the incident, Baer seemed to diminish his role in his wife’s falling to the ground. Later that day the Baers issued a joint statement saying they were “embarrassed” about the “heated argument” and said they had “resolved the issue.” Late Friday, Baer released a second solo statement, apologizing to his wife, children and the Giants organization and saying he would “do whatever it takes to make sure that I never behave in such an inappropriate manner again.”
It was hard not to read that progression as it increasingly dawning on Baer at how badly he came off in that video and endeavoring to ratchet-up his initial non-apology into something more substantive. A few moments ago it was ratcheted-up even further, with the “whatever it takes” being Baer relinquishing control of the Giants for an indefinite period:
Whether this move was truly Baer’s choice or, rather, whether this represents pressure from the Giants board is unknown and, probably, unknowable, but it’s telling that the comment is coming from the Giants as opposed to Baer. Either way, it’s also likely a preventative move, as Major League Baseball said on Friday that it was “gathering the facts” and would no doubt soon want to do something to Baer too. If you’re running the Giants you want that move to have as little impact on the team itself as opposed to Baer personally, thus auguring in favor of this kind of statement and action.
For more on this, you can read my post from Friday night, which goes over Major League Baseball’s history of disciplining owners. Yesterday morning, over at my personal blog, I talked a bit about how incidents such as these reveal just how many men out there seem to have no real problem with men abusing women.