Monday, March 1, 2010

RICH LIEBERMAN 415 MEDIA: Snow on Knibber: Dusty Baker snubs Giants Tribute dinner to '02 WS team

RICH LIEBERMAN 415 MEDIA: Snow on Knibber: Dusty Baker snubs Giants Tribute dinner to '02 WS team



BAKER HAD FALLING OUT WITH OWNERSHIP  sfgate 10-5-12

It was Baker's final home game as Giants manager. He bolted after the season, in part because of a falling out with ownership, but he never turned his back on the community. And vice versa.

No doubt Bruce Bochy was the ideal manager/foil the Giants went after when Baker  resigned after his falling out with the Giants.  A little more to the story, is that Baker , like trainer Stan conte and others, grew tired of Bonds effectively 'running'the team as much as him, the manager.  Everything was centered around bonds, despite the fact perhaps half the team or more didn't get along with him very well.  Bochy is  a guy who puts
up with anything -including three decades managing PED players, including his early years in San Diego with Caminiti and others



GIANTS BENCH GREEDWALD MEMOIR 
Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, April 20, 1999

The Giants are boycotting Hank Greenwald's autobiography.
"Are they going to have a book-burning?" asked Greenwald.
No, but they've canceled an order for 500 copies to be sold at their eight Dugout Stores in the Bay Area.

Greenwald, who did play-by-play of Giants games from 1979 to 1996 (minus two seasons with the New York Yankees), was particularly critical of left fielder Barry Bonds and Executive Vice President Larry Baer.
He questioned Bonds' baserunning and behavior, and wrote, "Bonds had many skills as a ballplayer and few as a person." Also, "In time, Barry Bonds will be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and deservedly so. His hitting and defensive play speak for themselves. So does his behavior."
Greenwald suggested Bonds often stole bases to pad his numbers, not to help the team. He cited the 1996 season when Bonds became the second player in history with at least 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases.
"It never bothered him that his (stolen-base) attempts, besides being outright selfish, also distracted those batting behind him," Greenwald wrote. "When he attained his 40th stolen base in Denver, two days before the season ended, he was the only one who seemed to care."

One-upmanship at play<

Greenwald said Bonds seemed obsessed with outdoing his father, ex-Giant Bobby Bonds, who reached 30 homers and 30 steals in a season five times: "For whatever reason, Barry was so determined to surpass Bobby, his stolen base attempts were both shameful and meaningless. Players on opposing teams often wondered what he was doing, while his scornful teammates knew only too well."
And finally, "In 1993, when Barry finished with 29 steals (one shy of the 30-30 milestone), it provided many of us with the only solace that came with finishing second to the Braves by one game."
In a phone interview Monday, Greenwald said he stood behind his book.
"I'm not the first to take a shot at Barry Bonds," he said. "Just the way he acts in front of people, cussing with women around and all that. So often, the Giants excuse his behavior by saying, "Well, that's just Barry.' Well, guess what? This is just Hank."

Personnel decision catalyst<

Greenwald's beef with Baer goes back to the first year of the Peter Magowan ownership group. Baer was Magowan's right-hand man and, as a former CBS executive, oversaw the Giants' broadcast department. He had the final word on personnel and contracts.
Greenwald was upset that broadcast partner Ron Fairly was fired, and he was left to work games with guest announcers, many with little or no experience, such as former big-leaguer Enos Cabell and Astros owner Drayton McLane.
Greenwald was also slow to welcome Ted Robinson, Fairly's replacement.
"It was obvious what little respect Baer had for the radio broadcasts, or for me," wrote Greenwald.
He continued: "Larry Baer was a product of Harvard Business School, where apparently they teach people to say things such as, "I hear you. I know where you're coming from . . .' Harvard also must teach its business students that unless they're under oath, they don't always have to tell the truth if they can talk around it or make something up."
Greenwald mentioned that he had battled Baer over his request for a room on the concierge floor of team hotels and a row to himself on charter flights.
"I've been told that I've trashed the organization. I don't think I did," Greenwald said in the phone interview. "My feeling is, I'd leave that for the readers to decide. Did I have some truths to speak? Yes I did. Did they reflect on Larry Baer? Yes, and they should have.
"I had a lot of wonderful years with the Giants. If I was going to write a book, it was going to be my story."



Talking baseball with Hank Greenwald

The best broadcaster you won't hear on the air talks about umpire arrogance, the home-run chase and "the Viagra of baseball."

 
Talking baseball with Hank GreenwaldSan Francisco Giants radio play-by-play broadcaster Hank Greenwald enjoys one of his always present Dunhill cigars in the broadcast booth atop 3Com Park after announcing his retirement in San Francisco, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 1996, prior to the San Francisco Giants game against Philadelphia. Greenwald, who has worked 16 seasons for the Giants, will retire at the end of the season. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)(Credit: AP)
The San Francisco Giants closed out 40 years of baseball history in windy Candlestick Park last week with a moving family reunion. Some 59 former Giants — from stars likeWillie Mays and Orlando Cepeda to players who had the proverbial cup of coffee on the Giants roster — streamed out of the dugout, and the scene became a real-life Field of Dreams, as older players in yellowing uniforms, hobbled by age, mixed with admiring current Giants in their bright white jerseys and all their youth and health.
There was only one bitter omission: As the Giants honored past owners, managers, broadcasters and staff, the team left out Hank Greenwald, the legendary and beloved broadcaster who was the voice of the team from 1979 through 1996, except for a two-year stint with the New York Yankees in the late 1980s. After an unhappy contract negotiation, Greenwald retired three years ago, prematurely, and with some bitterness at his treatment by Giants Vice President Larry Baer.
Earlier this year he vented his spleen — tastefully — in a sweet memoir, “This Copyrighted Broadcast.” The book is a love letter to the Giants, singling out president Peter Magowan and manager Dusty Baker for special praise. But because he devoted a handful of pages to his complaints about Baer — and a couple of paragraphs to disparaging superstar player Barry Bonds — the Giants have frozen him out of the organization. He used to occasionally fill in behind the mike as needed, broadcasting weekend home games with his former buddies, but now the team leaves some broadcasts understaffed. When it was time to hold a book party, it was hosted by the Oakland A’s, not the Giants.
Greenwald attended the Giants’ final Candlestick game last week, making his way down to a seat behind the dugout, thronged by fans. His classy successor in the broadcast booth, ESPN star Jon Miller, did the right thing and asked him up to call the game’s fourth inning on the radio. But he was never recognized out on the field that day.
Greenwald isn’t bitter, he says. He’s enjoying his retirement, and more time with his family. 


No comments:

Post a Comment