Larry Baer, the president and chief executive officer of the San Francisco Giants, was involved in an altercation with his wife in which he knocked her from her chair in a public plaza on Friday afternoon.
A video of the incident published by TMZ on Friday shows Baer attempting to take a cell phone from his wife, Pamela, pulling her to the ground as she shouts: “Oh my God, no, help!”
Baer confirmed he got into an “unfortunate public argument” with his wife in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, saying he’s apologized to his wife and police were not initially contacted, though Chronicle reporter Evan Sernoffsky said authorities later turned up at the scene in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood to speak with witnesses.
“My wife and I had an unfortunate public argument related to a family member and she had an injured foot and she fell off her chair in the course of the argument,” Baer said. “The matter is resolved. It was a squabble over a cell phone. Obviously it’s embarrassing.”
Baer, 61, joined the Giants as the team’s marketing director in 1980, working his way up and succeeding Bill Neukom as the team’s CEO in 2012.
The couple, who has four children together, has been married for 28 years.
A team spokesperson responded to request for comment from the Guardian with a joint statement from Larry and Pamela Baer, saying they were “deeply embarrassed” by the incident.
“Regrettably today we had a heated argument in public over a family matter,” the statement read. “We are deeply embarrassed by the situation and have resolved the issue.”
Major League Baseball released a statement saying that it “is aware of the incident and, just like any other situation like this, will immediately begin to gather the facts. We will have no further comment until this process is completed.”
