Lurie on Giants’ Wall of Fame
NEW YORK — Bob Lurie, the Giants’ second owner on the West Coast whose 1989 team reached the World Series, will be honored on the team’s Wall of Fame on Sept. 18.
Lurie, 92, will be the 54th person honored on the wall and the second owner, joining Peter Magowan, whose group bought the team from Lurie and was behind the construction of the waterfront ballpark that opened in 2000.
A ceremony is set for 3 p.m., hours before the Braves-Giants game. The wall is located on King Street between Second and Third streets.
Giants CEO Larry Baer called Lurie “one of those amazing individuals who cared so deeply and passionately about his hometown and baseball team that when Mayor George Moscone asked him to find a way to keep the Giants in San Francisco in 1976, he stepped up and purchased the team and did just that.
“He has been an inspiration and mentor to me and so many in the organization.”
Lurie bought the Giants in 1976 from Horace Stoneham, who accompanied Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley to California in 1958. Stoneham was on the verge of selling the team to Toronto interests when Lurie stepped in and partnered with Bud Herseth, who eventually was bought out.
Similarly, Lurie was closing in on selling to a group in Florida before selling to Magowan’s group before the 1993 season.
Lurie hired Frank Robinson, the National League’s first African American manager, before the 1981 season and later Al Rosen to be the Giants’ general manager, and Rosen hired Roger Craig to manage.
A team that lost 100 games in 1985 rebounded under Rosen and Craig to win division titles in 1987 and 1989 and advance to the ’89 World Series, which was interrupted by the Loma Prieta earthquake and won in four games by the A’s.