home > news > local

Giants Exec Dies One Week After Cancer Diagnosis

The team had a picnic at her house earlier this month.

Monday, Jul 20, 2009 | Updated 3:39 PM PST

Giants Exec Dies One Week After Cancer Diagnosis

Donald Miralle/Getty Images

Sue Burns gets a hug from Barry Bonds.

Sue Burns, the majority owner of the San Francisco Giants who was close friends with home run king Barry Bonds, has died. She was 58.

Burns died late Saturday night of complications from cancer, team spokesman Jim Moorehead said. She was diagnosed with the disease July 10 and missed Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter for the Giants that night -- a rare absence from the ballpark. Burns attended a game against San Diego the previous night.

"We all have heavy hearts," manager Bruce Bochy said Sunday in Pittsburgh, where the Giants played the Pirates. "Sue was such a beautiful lady who gave us her unwavering support all the time. These were her kids. We're going to miss her, her smile, coming down by the dugout before the game. Our thoughts are with her family, her daughters Tori and Trina."

Giants players and coaches had their annual picnic with Burns at her suburban Atherton home on July 8. Always dressed in orange, she was a fixture at the ballpark in the lower-box seats near San Francisco's dugout.

Burns often followed the team on the road and regularly attended spring training in Arizona. The Giants estimated that she went to at least 1,000 games over the last decade.

"She was there every day," Bochy said. "She was always there before the game started, sitting right by the dugout, and just smiled. She loved her boys. She was proud of them."

The team held a pregame prayer for Burns before Sunday's game.

"The whole thing's been unreal how fast all this happened," Bochy said. "It was just over a week ago, the team was at her house for a function, and one of those functions they all looked forward to and couldn't wait to go to. Now she's passed away. It's unreal. ... It's a hard day for all of us."

Burns' husband, Harmon, died of heart failure in 2006 at age 61.

The Burns family was largely responsible for keeping the Giants in the Bay Area in 1992 rather than relocating to Florida. Bonds arrived the following year and went on to become baseball's career home run leader when he broke Hank Aaron's record in August 2007.

"The times I met her, she was the most enthusiastic Giants fan in history," Oakland Athletics owner Lew Wolff said by phone Sunday. "She'll be deeply missed. I really think their commitment to Giants ownership was a great deal based on her enthusiasm for the baseball team. She was the epitome of a Giants fan."

Burns was born Aug. 9, 1950, in Alaska. She is survived by two daughters, Tori Burns and Trina Dean, son-in-law Rob Dean, and two granddaughters, Madison and Mackenzie.