William Neukom Named Giants General Managing Partner Following Magowan's Leave

Peter Magowan expectedly announced his retirement following the 2008 season and the Giants have already decided on the man that will replace him, William Neukom.

Mr. Neukom is kind of a baller. Besides formerly being the top dog attorney with this little Microsoft company until he retired in 2001, with $107 million worth of stock, he is currently serving as the president of the American Bar Association.

Neukom's toughest task, of course, besides figuring out how to get rid of Barry Zito without eating his entire contract, will be deciding ~~how much it takes to buy out~~ whether to retain Brian Sabean.

Magowan answered some questions from the Chron -- which is a pretty funny read by itself, just for the Zito quote -- that shed some light on how Neukom feels about Sabean.

'He's certainly safe as far as I'm concerned. (New managing general partner) Bill (Neukom) has said he's got confidence in Brian. You can't say anybody's got a guaranteed job. I never had a guaranteed job. I've never operated my entire life with a contract. I hadn't had one in 16 years. Brian has one that has another year to go. People who are the bosses are free to do as they see fit.'

See, to me, that's nothing more than a classic "vote of confidence". Sabean is Magowan's guy, so there's little chance he would ever actually lob him under moving wheels. But at the same time he has to know that the moves the Giants have made recently, and their inability to succeed, falls squarely on Sabean's inability to either a) put a team around Barry Bonds or b) recognize the need to rebuild (or alternately, understand reality).