Longtime SF Giants owner Peter Magowan dies at 76

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — Peter Magowan, the lifelong Giants fan who formed the ownership group that kept the team in San Francisco with a waterfront ballpark, died Jan. 25 after a battle with cancer. He was 76.

Magowan, who moved to California in 1958, the same year the Giants relocated from New York to San Francisco, 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.

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 first moves was signing Barry AP 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 in downtown San Francisco. That park, the first in years built without direct public funding, opened in 2000 and became one of the jewels of the game.

Magowan stepped down following the 2008 season but had put in place the management team that helped bring San Francisco its first World Series title in 2010, followed by championships in 2012 and ‘14.

Magowan worked 37 years for Safeway Inc. He was chairman and CEO from 1980-93.

Peter Magowan helped bring Barry Bonds and waterfront baseball to San Francisco.