Buster Posey backs out of radio interview in Giants latest misstep

SAN FRANCISCO — For a baseball team that can’t seem to do anything right between the lines, you’d think the Giants would try to ace their image off the field.And yet, their putrid play isn’t even the organization’s primary problem.The public relations disasterclass that started almost two weeks ago when the franchise failed to get in front of a Pride Night fiasco that has escalated into a federal investigation and put the club in the crosshairs of a national political debate only continued Thursday.Once again, a top club official was put in front of the press and took one big swing and a miss.Two days after Buster Posey embarrassed himself by coming unprepared to address either of the biggest issues facing the team — Rafael Devers showing up his manager and his players’ objections to one of the team’s most important promotional nights — the president of baseball operations canceled his scheduled interview on the team’s flagship radio network, KNBR.It was supposed to be Posey’s turn to appear on the weekly “Executive Show,” but instead it was CEO Larry Baer who came on with hosts John Dickinson and Dieter Kurtenbach.Apparently even the friendliest possible setting was too scary for the team’s top baseball executive.Dickinson introduced Posey’s replacement by telling listeners that the team’s top business-side executive had “some things [he] wants to address about Pride Night.” That much alone was dubious, given that Baer was not made available despite repeated requests by reporters following the uncomfortable session with Posey in which he would only answer “baseball questions.”Despite apparently preparing a statement, Baer said about as little as Posey did two days prior and took no questions on the controversy.That, according to a source familiar, was a result of the restrictions put on the interview by team officials, who told the hosts in a meeting over Zoom the night before that Baer would be pinch-hitting and no follow-u...