When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

05.16.2008
Don't Neukom Til You've Tried Him

Or how about Neukom? I hardly know him! Actually, that’s not true. In a previous life, I sweated over the new Giant managing general partner’s every word. Neukom_BillSee, Bill Neukom, who will replace Peter Magowan as top ownership dog at the end of the year, was the top lawyer at Microsoft in the DOJ-antitrust days. (You know, Netscape? Browser wars? CEO Steve Ballmer’s famous words, “To heck with Janet Reno?” Hello? Is any of this ringing a bell?)

Funny that he’s now in charge of a franchise in a sport that depends on the great good fortune of a Congressional antitrust exemption. Hmm.

But back to Microsoft. My friends and I helped break the then-cataclysmic story, then break it down to its infinitesimal bits, and we had some good fun along the way. Not sure if “Duke” Neukom — how’s that for a dated techgeek reference? — reads El Lefty Malo, but if so, Bill, I hope the Giants under your reign are as dominant as Windows without the ham sandwich (that’s an inside joke). 

Your first task as new managing GP: Adopt Steve Ballmer as the new video-board rally mascot. (Friendly hint: If you stop the clip before the end you’ll miss the armpit sweat stains.)

For the record, Neukom retired from Microsoft years ago to return to Bill Gates’s daddy’s law firm, the most prestigious in Seattle, and he’s currently the president of the American Bar Association. And he wears bow ties. What else do you need to know? How about this: In the Neukom Era, Larry Baer will become even more powerful with a promotion to team president.

If Brian Sabean is Microsoft BOB and Billy Beane is Steve Jobs’s reality distortion field, then who is Linux? Discuss.   







[May 16, 2008 7:56 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Paul R. said

Hey, Duke Nukem isn't that dated, especially since they're actually releasing DN4, for reals this time.

[May 17, 2008 3:55 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Cyrus said

Larry Beinfest.

What do I win?