The Giants Need To Fix Their Image Problem And Their Money Problem

In the aftermath of Shohei Ohtani’s decision to sign with the Dodgers, Giants President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi held a press availability. Zaidi explained how the Giants went about trying to woo Ohtani to sign with San Francisco. They matched the Dodgers offer dollar for dollar and word for word—a ten-year deal for $700 million with most of the money deferred to years 11-20. Zaidi told the assembled media that “geography” seemed to play a role in that Ohtani appeared to prefer staying in Southern California.

Later that day, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly—who’s covered the Giants for more than 20 years—talked to Buster Posey about the Giants’ Ohtani effort. Posey is now a part owner of the Giants. He was present in the meeting with Ohtani and his agent, along with Zaidi, new manager Bob Melvin, and managing general partner Greg Johnson.

Posey explained that the Giants pitched Ohtani on the long history of superstars playing for the Giants—Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Barry Bonds—and the Giants’ recent spate of World Series Championships. The Giants told Ohtani that, in essence, they’d be honored to have Ohtani pick up that mantle and etch his name in Giants and MLB history.

The key paragraph in Baggarly’s story is the long quote from Posey:

Oh boy.

The reaction has been swift—mostly among folks who say the problem with the Giants is only the Giants themselves. They can’t attract superstar free agents like Ohtani and Aaron Judge (last year) and even Bryce Harper (before the 2019 season) because they haven’t consistently built a winning roster since 2016. Superstars want to win. They want to play with other star players who want to win.

I agree with that view to a large extent.

But I also don’t want to absolve the Giants of their responsibility to San Francisco—to the city, to its residents, and its visitors.

No one can dispute that San Francisco is dealing with several intertwined problems: homelessness and homeless encampments; open-air drug dealing; and drug addition and overdose deaths, among the homeless population and others living on the margins.

Other large cities are also dealing with these difficult problems. New York (where Judge signed) and Los Angeles (where Ohtani signed) have the two largest homeless populations in the country. Those two cities also have higher homeless rates than San Francisco. According to the City Mayor Foundation—an urban affairs think tank—both New York and Los Angeles have 400 homeless residents for every 100,000 residents. In San Francisco, that number is closer to 260.

Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia top the list of cities with opioid-related overdose deaths, according to Drexel University. San Francisco’s overdose death rate is higher than the national average. New York’s and LA’s are lower than the national average.

Does the national and international media direct more attention to San Francisco’s drug and homelessness problems than other cities? I haven’t studied that, but my lived experience says Yes.

FOX News and the right wing media ecosystem love to tear San Francisco down because—rightly or wrongly—San Francisco holds itself out as a progressive, open-minded, and welcoming city. San Francisco is a proud haven for the LGBTQ+ community, for immigrants, for those who march to their own beat.

Right-wingers use San Francisco to try to “show” that progressivism doesn't work. They also want to punish those they mark as "sinners." And once an idea is in the right-wing media ecosystem, the New York Times, CNN and others feel obliged to cover it.

I have read so many stories about San Francisco being in a doom loop, feeling like a zombie apocalypse, cratering on the edge of becoming a failed city.

Does San Francisco have problems? Absolutely. But we are not falling in the abyss.

We have quirky and vibrant neighborhoods all over the city. We have stunning views, beautiful and abundant outdoor spaces, and some of the best restaurants in the world.

My husband and I raised two children in this city. Both went to public school through middle school and one through high school. Both are grounded, empathetic, and successful adults. Raising kids in a diverse, open-minded city helped prepare them to thrive in the real world.

Giants President and CEO Larry Baer is part of a group of San Francisco business leaders trying to change the city’s business climate. In October they kicked off a public relations campaign called It All Starts Here—“a multimedia campaign to assert San Francisco's role as an innovative and thriving hub for business and the arts.”

Public relations plays a role in combatting media messaging. I hope the campaign is successful.

But Larry Baer and the Giants need to do more.

They need to make San Francisco and Oracle Park hot commodities again.

Remember, Larry Baer has been a part of the Giants’ ownership group since 1992. Baer helped Peter Magowan attract investors to buy the team from Bob Lurie just before Lurie moved the team to Tampa/St. Petersburg.

The first move by the new ownership group was to sign Barry Bonds to what was then the largest free-agent contract in MLB: $43.75 million over six years. The second move was to privately finance the construction of the new ballpark at the corner of 3rd and King Streets in the China Basin neighborhood.

They invested in San Francisco and it paid off handsomely for everyone. The ballpark is magnificent and a great place to watch a ballgame. The ballpark spurred on the creation of a new neighborhood, which now abuts a new medical and biosciences development called Mission Bay.

They built the teams that won three World Series Championships in 5 years.

Sometime in the last 10 years or so, it seems that the Giants’ energy, commitment and investment in the team and the city have waned. They’ve been resting on their prior success but not doing what you need to do to keep being successful.

Sure, the Giants are building the Mission Rock development across from the ballpark which includes housing, retail and office space. But that’s not going to improve the city or the team as much as line ownership’s pockets.

Charles Johnson was an original member of the Magowan-Baer ownership group. Over the years, he purchased more and more shares from other investors and became the team’s largest shareholder in the mid-2010’s. Johnson is the multi-billionaire owner of Franklin Templeton Investments. He’s also a large contributor to right-wing politicians and causes—politicians that appear on FOX News and gleefully crap all over San Francisco.

I don’t know if Johnson’s ascension to managing general partner of the team caused the Giants to disinvest from the city and team or whether the timing was a coincidence.

Here’s what we do know: Charles’ son Greg Johnson is now the managing general partner and is most famous for saying, at the press conference in October to introduce new manager Bob Melvin, that the goal of the ownership group is “to somewhat break even.” 

Not to put the best possible team on the field. Not to win the World Series. Not to attract the biggest stars in the game. No, the goal is to somewhat break even.

What superstar wants to play for a team with that mantra?

The team’s number one priority must be fielding a talented, highly entertaining team that people want to watch, in person, at Oracle Park.

The Giants alone can’t fix the city’s problems. But they can bring energy, people, and money back to San Francisco and Oracle Park. The Giants revitalized China Basin once. They can do it again.

They must do it again.

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