Giants CEO Larry Baer takes leave of absence after disturbing video surfaces

San Francisco Giants President and CEO Larry Baer is taking a leave of absence after a video surfaced Friday that showed him grabbing a phone from his wife during a fight that caused her to fall to the ground, team officials announced Monday.

The Board of Directors of San Francisco Baseball Associates issued a statement Monday morning on behalf of the Giants’ ownership group saying the Giants executive team will manage the day-to-day operations of the franchise during Baer’s leave of absence.

“Mr. Baer has acknowledged that his behavior was unacceptable, apologized to the organization and is committed to taking steps to make sure that this never happens again,” the statement said.

“As leaders in the community, we at the Giants hold ourselves to the highest standards and those standards will guide how we consider this matter moving forward,” the team said.

The video that surfaced Friday showed Baer and his wife fighting at a park in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood. Baer was standing and arguing with her as she sat in a chair with a phone and some papers. He grabbed the phone and papers and tried to take them from her, and she fell to the ground and yelled.

Baer released a statement later Friday, saying:

“I am truly sorry for the pain that I have brought to my wife, children and to the organization. It is not reflective of the kind of 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.”