San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer appeared to lunge at his wife in a public park Friday afternoon, knocking her out of her chair as she shouted for help.
In video taken by a bystander that was published by TMZ, Pam Baer can be heard screaming, “Oh my God, no, help!”
The couple had reportedly been in a heated argument in a city park when the incident escalated. Larry Baer appears to grab at a cellphone his wife is holding.
“My wife and I had an unfortunate public argument related to a family member and she had an injured foot and she fell off her chair in the course of the argument,” Baer later told San Francisco Chronicle reporter Evan Sernoffsky, adding that the matter was “resolved.”
“It was a squabble over a cell phone. Obviously it’s embarrassing,” Baer said, according to Sernoffsky.
In a joint statement issued later Friday, the Baers did not mention Pam’s foot.
“Regrettably today we had a heated argument in public over a family matter,” the joint statement read. “We are deeply embarrassed by the situation and have resolved the issue.”
In yet another statement issued by the Giants later Friday, Baer apologized “for the pain I have brought to my wife, children and to the organization.”
“It is not reflective of the kind of a 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,” he said.
Witnesses in the park intervened to break up the argument, the Chronicle reported. Police later arrived at the scene.
In an interview with the paper, the man who shot the video, who did not wish to be identified, said the couple had been having a “very emotional conversation” that lasted roughly 20 minutes before Pam snatched Larry’s cellphone.
“He knocks her down off her chair and gets on top of her and puts his hands on her,” the man told the Chronicle. “She was screaming for help. She seemed pretty terrified.”
“Major League Baseball is aware of the incident and, just like any other situation like this, will immediately begin to gather the facts,” the group said Friday in a statement to HuffPost. “We will have no further comment until this process is completed.”
Late on Friday, the Baers spoke again ― this time through separate statements.
In hers, Pam Baer clarified what happened during the confrontation and said she lost her balance due to a foot injury that was sustained three days earlier. She also noted that she is still “happily married.”
“My husband and I had an argument in public about which we are quite embarrassed,” she said in a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I took his cellphone. He wanted it back and I did not want to give it back.”
“I started to get up and the chair I was sitting in began to tip,” she added. “I did not sustain any injury based on what happened today. Larry and I always have been and still are happily married.”
Larry Baers’ statement included another apology, this time directed towards his family and the Giants.
“I am truly sorry for the pain that I have brought to my wife, children and to the organization,” he said in a tweet sent by the Giants’ Twitter account.
“It is not reflective of the kind of a person that I aspire to be,” he added. “But it happened and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that I never behave in such an inappropriate manner again.”
This story has been updated with an apology from Baer in a statement issued by the Giants as well as a separate statement issued by Pam Baer.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Carla Herreria contributed to this story.