San Francisco Giants owner’s Hyde-Smith donation sparks calls for team boycott

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Andrew Suarez of the San Francisco Giants
“In no way does the Giants organization condone any racist and hateful language by anyone,” San Francisco Giants President & CEO Laurence M. Baer said in a statement. | Robert Reiners/Getty Images

ELECTIONS

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SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants have fouled out with lifelong fans and African-American leaders who are calling for a boycott of the baseball team following revelations that co-owner Charles B. Johnson and his wife made the maximum $5,400 donation to the campaign of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.).

Johnson, an investment firm billionaire and the largest single stakeholder in the Giants team, wrote the check less than two weeks after Hyde-Smith’s much-reported remarks about being willing to attend a “public hanging’’ — a comment she later apologized for and dismissed as a “bad joke.”

But outrage over Johnson’s political donations sparked again following revelations that Johnson had also previously given $1,000 to a super PAC calling itself “Black Americans for the President’s Agenda’,’ which produced a widely-condemned ad for the midterm election purporting to reflect a conversation between African-Americans suggesting Democrats would support lynching.

“[Johnson] has shown that his heart is on the side of oppression, terror, lynching and racist practices…and we should not cooperate with supporting the Giants with this kind of a person being a major investor,’’ said Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, who was among African American leaders Monday calling for a boycott of the team.

Brown said Hyde-Smith’s statements about being willing to sit at a “public lynching,’’ in addition to her enthusiastic support of Confederate history and her past attendance at a Christian segregationist school are actions which “take me back to the horror and hell of my native Mississippi.’’

Johnson, the retired chair of Franklin-Templeton Investments, said in a statement that he had “absolutely no knowledge” his donation to the “Black Americans” super PAC would be used in such a manner. But he has made no apologies about the donation to the embattled Mississippi senator, even in the wake of continuing headlines about Hyde-Smith’s background and past statements.

While a growing roster of corporate donors — including Major League Baseball, Walmart, Pfizer, AT&T, Aetna, and Union Pacific — have tried to distance themselves from the GOP candidate by requesting refunds of their political donations, Johnson has not asked for a refund from Hyde-Smith.

Hyde-Smith faces a Tuesday runoff against Democratic former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.

A statement released Monday by the San Francisco Giants President & CEO Laurence M. Baer underscored the increasingly difficult position Johnson put the Major League team in — the Giants are based in one of the nation’s most liberal bastions.

“In no way does the Giants organization condone any racist and hateful language by anyone,’’ behavior which Baer called “abhorrent’’ in his statement. But the team’s CEO also noted that the Giants have more than 30 different owners and “just like our fans, they come from different backgrounds and have their own political views.”

Prominent civil rights attorney John Burris, speaking in San Francisco at a press conference Monday with Brown, said such apologies don’t suffice for the African American community. In a week in which the team has begun selling opening day ticket packages for the 2019 season, Burris said that “as a lifelong Giants fan,” he will now withdraw all support and buying power from his home team, and called for a wide-ranging team boycott.

“I understand that people make political contributions to whomever they want…but to make contributions to a woman who has a history as an avowed segregationist in a state with a longstanding history” of violence and lynching demands response from political leaders and the business community alike,“ he said.

Dan Daniels, a Western regional NAACP director who leads the organization in California and Hawaii — says his group is also wholeheartedly behind the team boycott to denounced Hyde-Smith.

For many African Americans, he said, “it’s here we go again…and we must stand up to that,’’ he said.

Assemblyman David Chiu, a Democrat who represents San Francisco, said he had not yet spoken with the team but predicted the controversy was spurring “significant angst” for a Giants organization that has long promoted tolerance and diversity. Chiu said Johnson should withdraw the contribution and if not, the team should explore options to buy his stake.

The calls for a boycott have gotten increasing traction on social media from figures including former Nixon attorney John Dean, who tweeted, “Whoa! I know many SF Giants fans who are going to have real trouble with a co-owner, Charles Johnson, who donates max dollars to Mississippi U.S. Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Trump loving racist running against Mike Epsy. SF is true blue!”

Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton, in a call to arms, told readers that the SF Giants “aren’t getting any more of my money” for tickets, broadcasts or merchandise.

And Christine Pelosi, a California Democratic Party official and the daughter of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — both rabid Giants fans — noted on Twitter that “it’s gut-wrenching to see the team I love and serve as a volunteer NOT get that this #MSSen debacle is bigger than politics or baseball,’’ she tweeted this week. “It’s about humanity.”

Jeremy B. White contributed to this report.

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