SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan has stepped down as managing partner of the Major League Baseball club after presiding over an era where Barry Bonds made his tainted home run record chase.
Magowan will keep an ownership stake in the team while William Neukom, former Microsoft lead counsel, will become managing partner and team vice-president Larry Baer will be president, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Bonds broke Hank Aaron's US career home run record last year, finishing on 762 homers before being cut by the Giants following the season, ending years of soap opera swirling around doping accusations and his chase of the milestone.
Magowan, 66, oversaw construction of a new waterfront ballpark and assembled a team that came within five outs of a 2002 World Series title in four playoff appearances during 16 years in charge of the National League squad.
It was Magowan who organized a purchasing group in 1992 that bought the Giants for 100 million dollars from Bob Lurie after he had swung a deal to sell to a Florida investor group that planned to take the team to Tampa.
The Giants are worth four or five times as much as that original investment.
Magowan signed Bonds to a six-year contract worth 43.75 million dollars in 1992, a deal that was at the time the biggest in baseball history.
The investment paid off when Bonds filled the ballpark night after night during his quest to break Aaron's record despite links to the BALCO steroid scandal that made him a pariah in every other ballpark around the sport.
Bonds was charged Tuesday with 15 counts by federal prosecutors, 14 for perjury and another for obstructing justice, in connection with his testimony before the BALCO steroid scandal grand jury.
He became the poster star for baseball doping while denying any wrongdoing and an investigation report last December by former US Senator George Mitchell ripped Magowan for failing to prevent a steroid subculture from developing in the Giants clubhouse.
Too little and too late in the opinion of critics, Magowan waived Bonds last September, saying he would not bring back the slugger a month after Bonds had broken Aaron's mark.
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