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A fourth generation San Franciscan with impeccable credentials in the world of marketing, television, film and politics, Larry Baer has gained a national reputation as one of professional sports' leading visionaries. The 45-year-old Baer, a limited partner of the Giants' ownership group who has served as executive vice president of the team since December 1992, also was named chief operating officer of the franchise in May 1996.
For the past eight years, Baer has also served as the chairperson of the team's new $357 million Pacific Bell Park project at China Basin, near downtown San Francisco. In 1996, he was named president of the China Basin Ballpark Corporation (CBBC), a private entity formed by Giants investors to finance and build the new ballpark, which opened in April 2000.
Under his direction, the Giants enjoyed perhaps their finest hour in San Francisco in 2000. The franchise sold 3,315,000 tickets, shattering the all-time club attendance record by more than 700,000. Pacific Bell Park opened to widespread acclaim as one of the 'best ballparks ever built,' and Baer joined team president Peter Magowan in being honored with throwing out the first pitch at the park's historic Opening Day April 11, 2000. The club enjoyed continued success at Pacific Bell Park in 2001, surpassing the 3.3 million mark in attendance and leading all of baseball in sponsorship revenue, while branding the park as one of the most popular venues in the country for special events.
The San Francisco Lowell High School graduate has been the driving force behind every phase of the ballpark project, including the park's original design by HOK Sports; the successful voter campaign in March 1996; the subsequent private financing package that featured the highly successful Charter Seat program; the unprecedented drive to secure a record 29,500 season ticket holders, and the final construction of the facility.
Baer is responsible for the overall day-to-day functioning of the Giants organization, both on the business and baseball sides of the operation. A key leader in assembling the new ownership group and negotiating the 1992 sale which kept the Giants in San Francisco, he has also been a member of Major League Baseball's prestigious television committee.
After earning Phi Beta Kappa honors at the University of California in 1980, Baer joined the Giants as the club's marketing director. During his initial three-year stint with the Giants, he helped direct the highly acclaimed 'Croix de Candlestick' campaign, among other successful promotional events. In 1983, he left the Giants to attend Harvard Business School, followed by a four-year tenure at Westinghouse Broadcasting in San Francisco and New York. He finally returned to the Giants in December 1992 from CBS, Inc. in New York, where he had served as special assistant to the network's chairman, Laurence Tisch.
In 1996, Baer was accorded the San Francisco Distinguished Leadership Award, a highly-coveted honor given to individuals who have contributed to their community and provided leadership for a better quality of life. In addition, the Giants executive received the prestigious 'Sports Torch of Learning Award' by the Scopus Society of the American Friends of The Hebrew University in 1995 and the Anti-Defamation League's Torch of Liberty Award in 2001.
Baer also serves on the boards of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the California Academy of Sciences, the San Francisco Committee on Jobs, the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco and the Northern California Special Olympics.
In addition, he has been a catalyst in the drive to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to the Bay Area and serves on the executive board dedicated to this effort.
Baer and his wife, Pam, reside in San Francisco with their four children.
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