Bernstein, pitcher Rinku Singh and actor Suraj Sharma. Two year-old javelin throwers from India beat out 37, contestants in a reality-television contest to find the most promising baseball pitchers in a cricket-mad country, then come to the United States and get contracts with a major-league team.
The story is actually true. San Mateo business magnate Will Chang devised the contest, and next spring, Disney will release a motion picture based on this unusual tale. The theatrical trailer premiered Friday. Chang, the Peninsula real estate investor, venture capitalist and a small-percentage owner of the San Francisco Giants , will be played by Tzi Ma.
As Chang told his partner, Ash Vasudevan , "Let's go find a one-in-a-billion in a country with 1. Chang formed his opinions as he tried to run alongside the elite athletes in the San Francisco Marathon, which he once owned, and watched all-time home run leader Barry Bonds decide within a fraction of a second whether to swing at a pitch or take it based on the rotation of the ball. Many players can do that. Bonds' ability was almost unreal. They can do what The thought of these superhuman beings just kept ringing in my head.
Mayor Frank Jordan, claiming that the deal was far from settled, began mobilizing support for a counteroffer from the San Francisco business community. White told the mayor he had three weeks, which meant somewhere around the second week of October One had to do with the calendar. That gave the San Franciscans two days to meet the deadline. Shorenstein made one or two calls and raised a bit more capital.
Shorenstein also urged the general partners to up their individual antes. In a matter of hours, the group had a substantial base of capital to go forward. There are many accounts of how this question was answered. Most describe the practicalities, that most of the partners — Shorenstein, Schwab, Don and John Fisher, for example — did not have the time or the inclination to run a baseball club, and asked Magowan if he would do it. Magowan was an experienced executive, but he also brought to the group a deep love and understanding of baseball, and a lifelong connection to the Giants.
Armed with an agreement cobbled together over the weekend, Magowan, as newly designated chief managing partner, flew to New York on Sunday night, October 11, accompanied by Larry Baer.
Petersburg bid. Magowan explained to the press after he met with White. The delivery of the competing bid did little to quiet the drama connected with the Giants sale. First there were cries of foul play coming from the Floridians, saying that White, an ex-Giant after all, was hardly a disinterested party.
Next came waves of lawsuits, beginning with one from the City of San Francisco against Bob Lurie for breaking the lease on Candlestick; this was followed by one from St. Petersburg investors against San Francisco, claiming that theirs was the only legitimate bid, since Bob Lurie, the Giants owner, agreed in writing to deal only with them.
Petersburg for interference with the contract Bob Lurie held with Candlestick Park. Tampa Bay responded, this time by naming Mayor Jordan. San Francisco then filed a counterclaim, seeking legal fees from the Tampa Bay investors and the City of St.
Petersburg because they both had signed indemnification agreements with the major leagues against any damages or claims that might occur in the process of buying or selling a franchise. Law Professor Jeffrey Brand explained that the indemnification agreements would stop all the litigation in its tracks, since all of the parties, the Floridians, Bob Lurie, and the San Franciscans, had signed agreements. He and Corey Busch began a marathon schedule in an attempt to meet with each of the owners to explain the details and benefits of the Florida offer.
Petersburg buyers, that he had given his word not to consider another offer until theirs had been given its full development. Undoubtedly, this eleventh-hour visit around the league testified to that promise.
But there was also the matter of business. Moreover, Lurie pointed out, the San Francisco offer contained some contingencies, such as getting a loan at a financial interest rate acceptable to the buyers, that would put him further at risk. They also received substantial help from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
In a letter to Bill White in late October, Mayor Jordan outlined certain concessions the city would give to the Giants regarding Candlestick, including a waiver on stadium rent and the payment by the city of all utility and field-management costs. At the November 10 meeting of the National League, the owners rejected the St. Petersburg groups; he was now able to consider other offers for his club. A joint statement issued by Magowan and Shorenstein hinted of optimistic relief. For someone who had been through an emotional wringer over the past two months, Lurie sounded remarkably composed:.
I know the feeling you have today. I had the same wonderful feeling in Lurie remarked that while he did not expect his review of the Magowan offer to take more than a few days, he wanted to give it his due diligence since he was its largest single investor. Bud Selig, acting on behalf of the owners, said that as soon as Lurie accepted the offer, baseball would vote on the sale, probably at the December meeting.
Reactions around San Francisco ranged from ecstatic to guarded euphoria, in keeping with a city that loves a party but cultivates a sense of cool. In fact, unlike some of his mayoral predecessors, including Christopher and Moscone, Jordan played a minor role in the latest chapter of Giants history in San Francisco, leaving the heavy lifting to the men of finance and commerce like Magowan, Shorenstein, and the Fisher brothers.
Bars around the downtown center were jammed. Sports radio talk shows were overwhelmed with happy and relieved fans.
Feelings were reversed in St. Petersburg and Tampa. The frustration of coming so close and then being jilted again grated on fans, bringing back the sour taste of losing the White Sox in Some said it was more of the same, a lack of respect for central Florida as a big-league venue. Mack and Graham were instrumental in scheduling a Senate hearing in early December in Washington, but little came of it.
No baseball club has been permitted to relocate since the Washington Senators moved to Texas in Indeed, the National League rejected the move to Tampa-St. The two Florida senators went on record to register their disappointment about St. Despite the jubilation in San Francisco, official business lay ahead. After a period of review and consideration, Lurie accepted the San Francisco offer.
Then it was a simple matter of bringing the agreement to the owners for their approval. Once again, at the eleventh hour with a local purchase, the Giants would remain in San Francisco. And once again, under yet another ownership, the franchise faced an uncertain future in the same ballpark that had troubled them for over 30 years. With Magowan as chief managing partner, Giants ownership entered a new phase of organizational structure, away from the single-owner model to an administration that is more corporate, with a board of directors and the head officer of the franchise emerging from the board and reporting back to them.
For the next 15 years, from through , Peter Magowan would head and run the organization, with Larry Baer as his chief assistant. The new ownership hit the ground running. More important, perhaps, they embarked on a bold new plan to find a new ballpark downtown.
Magowan and Baer began their planning slowly at first, in conversations in the fall of , musing about their favorite baseball venues and sharing impressions of the parks they had visited.
They then moved to more practical considerations to develop a strategy to go forward. And that meant one thing: private financing. Privately constructed ballparks were a rarity in recent baseball history. The last one to be built was Dodger Stadium, finished in The daunting practical side of campaigning for the ballpark was eased somewhat by an accompanying exercise of conjuring up the perfect stadium and of dreaming about what it would look like.
Combining an aesthetic sense with an historical one, they conceived of the ballpark as a special place, reflecting both the uniqueness of the sport itself and the environs where it would be built. Their planning grew out of the traditional side of baseball. Both had distinct features that let you know where you were.
The Giants had their location; the Port of San Francisco had agreed to lease them a What we envisioned was a ballpark more compelling, more distinctive than any other of recent memory. By the late twentieth century, the area had evolved from an industrial waterfront to warehouses and offices. The It was seen by many in the city as an area primed for development. Magowan also worked with Spear on the interior playing field, especially on how it would be influenced by its location and the dimensions of the site.
Features of the playing field would evolve from its own small dimensions and the proximity of the water. Magowan thought that the restriction of space could dictate an interesting irregular outfield that would have an impact on how the game would be played.
Unlike football or basketball, where the playing dimensions are fixed, baseball, aside from the infield measurements, always had irregularities in the old parks like Fenway, the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, and Shibe Park in Philadelphia. At the China Basin site, the right-field dimensions would be restricted by the close proximity of the water, only feet from home plate in the corner, but would quickly run away from the plate toward right-center, which would be feet at its deepest.
The left-field foul line would be feet and in straightaway center field. There would be sharp angles in both right-center and left-center. The dreaming came easily to both Magowan and Baer, as did their collaboration with Spear. They now faced the difficult parts: how to get public support for their planning, and then find a way to pay for it.
The first step was to put a ballot measure before the San Francisco voters to gain approval for the construction of the ballpark. Prop B, as it came to be known, involved land-use restrictions, the most important of which were to increase the limitations on building height from 40 to feet and to waive parking requirements near the ballpark.
In the buildup to the vote, Magowan and Baer wasted no effort in cultivating strong citywide support for the measure. While the terms of Prop B differed from previous referenda in making no demands for public money to build the park, Magowan and Baer were wary about possible negative residue carrying over from the or ballpark ballot defeats.
Kopp, Roberta Achtenberg, and Rev. All the planning, organizing, polling, and campaigning paid off for the Giants in a stunning victory at the polls. Proposition B was approved by San Francisco voters by a substantial majority of 66 percent. The local papers celebrated the news. Once the vote was approved, Magowan and Baer could get to work on the financing. Magowan explained that from the outset the plan to raise capital was multifaceted. The first stage was a brilliant marketing ploy aimed at season-ticket holders.
Westlake Realty Group establishes Westlake Urban as the arm of the company in charge of all development projects. Kristina C. Westlake Urban commences work on the San Jose Hilton Garden Inn development project, marking the first hotel joint venture for the company.
Chang moves to US.
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