Giants CEO apologizes after physical altercation with wife caught on video
San Francisco Giants president and chief executive officer Larry Baer was captured on video dragging his wife Pam to the ground during an apparent incident in a public plaza on Friday, according to Matthias Gafni and Evan Sernoffsky of the San Francisco Chronicle.
A bystander recorded the incident and the video was released by TMZ on Friday afternoon. Pam Baer is heard screaming, "Oh my god, no, help," as she's pulled from her chair to the ground. The Giants executive appears to try to grab something out of her hand.
A witness told Gafni that the couple had a 20-minute argument and that Larry knocked his wife out of her chair after reaching to get his cell phone back from her.
The witness said he and another man confronted Baer as he stood over his wife, and he backed off when they grabbed him; a second video shows Baer telling his wife to stop before leaving the scene
— Matthias Gafni (@mgafni) March 1, 2019
In a statement to Sernoffsky shortly after the video's release, Baer said police were not contacted and he's since apologized to his wife. He said they were having an argument over a cellphone.
The Baers said they were both "deeply embarrassed by the situation" in a joint statement the Giants released. They also issued separate statements later Friday.
"My husband and I had an argument in public about which we are quite embarrassed," Pam Baer wrote in a statement released to Sernoffsky through her personal attorney. "I took his cellphone. He wanted it back and I did not want to give it back. I started to get up and the chair I was sitting in began to tip. Due to an injury I sustained in my foot three days ago, I lost my balance. I did not sustain any injury based on what happened today.
"Larry and I have always been and still are happily married."
In his own statement issued through the Giants, Larry apologized for his behavior.
"I am truly sorry for the pain that I have brought to my wife, children, and to the organization," he said, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. "It is not reflective of the kind of a person that I aspire to be, but it happened and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that I never behave in such an inappropriate manner again."
Major League Baseball said it is "aware of the incident and, just like any other situation like this, will immediately begin to gather the facts," according to the Chronicle's Henry Schulman. "We will have no further comment until this process is completed."
The Giants executive could face discipline under the league's domestic violence policy, which applies to both players and front-office personnel, ESPN's Jeff Passan reports. Since it was instituted in 2015, MLB has issued suspensions to multiple players who were found to have violated the policy.
Baer has been a member of the Giants' ownership group since 1992. He was elevated to team president in 2008 and became CEO in 2012.