Magowan ready to step back from Giants

SAN FRANCISCO -- Peter Magowan recently made his rounds through the dugout and several fans stopped him to offer their best wishes and thanks for what he's done during nearly two decades running the San Francisco Giants.

Come next Wednesday, Magowan will walk away from his role as primary owner and managing partner of the franchise after 16 years. He will head into a retirement filled with fishing trips, travel and time with his grandchildren. He already has a vacation to Italy planned for one of his first getaways.

"I'm ready. The difficult part was making the decision in the first place," Magowan said. "But once I made it, I don't look back, and that's typical of me. When I make a decision, whether it's the right one or the wrong one, that's it and move on to the next decision. I'm comfortable. I wish we could have had a better year this year than we did. I really felt we'd be an improvement over last year's team."

The recent losing seasons aside, Magowan's legacy surely will be as the man who kept Major League Baseball in San Francisco, brought home run king Barry Bonds to town and ultimately also let him go, and the one who built a new ballpark.

Not to mention his work keeping former players and Hall of Famers such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda around in advisory roles. The 66-year-old Magowan is proud of those efforts. They all have been celebrated this year during the club's 50th anniversary of its move from New York.

"You look at this ballpark and it's certainly going to be a big part of Peter's legacy," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "And the fact the Giants are here, because they were close to leaving San Francisco. Peter will always be instrumental in keeping the Giants here. And all the ex-Giants who come back here -- (J.T.) Snow, (Shawon) Dunston and the ceremony for Orlando Cepeda -- a lot of that is Peter Magowan. Once you're a Giant, you're always a Giant.

"He really takes a lot of pride in the history of the San Francisco Giants. He has done a great job of building the tremendous tradition they have here."

There have been plenty of ups and downs during Magowan's tenure and his decisions haven't always been popular. But he's stuck to what he believes and communicated openly with fans, receiving feedback and criticism.

The Giants haven't made the playoffs since 2003 and are in a rebuilding mode with young players. Attendance also is down. The team won't reach 3 million in attendance for the first time since its waterfront ballpark opened in 2000.

"I've always had the philosophy that a ballpark belongs to the community, not to the owner or set of owners. I think the community wants the team to be run in a way that if they were in charge, how would they want it to be run?" Magowan said. "They want to see a good product on the field and they want to have a good environment at the ballpark where everything works -- clean ballpark, courteous employees, good food, take care of children, all of these things. And they want the team to behave in a way they would be proud of."

That strong community image likely helped the Giants weather the steroids controversy that surrounded Bonds, who played 15 seasons in San Francisco before the team parted ways with the slugger following the 2007 season. His departure came a little more than a month after he broke Hank Aaron's home run record with No. 756, and Bonds has since been indicted.

The seven-time NL MVP is accused of lying to a grand jury about his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. He hasn't played again despite his desire to continue.

Magowan, one of baseball's more public owners, and the Giants were mentioned prominently in the Mitchell Report released last December. He then met with commissioner Bud Selig during spring training about whether members of the Giants' front office knew players were allegedly using steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.