The man who saved baseball team the San Francisco Giants for California was also a huge fan of Bermuda, it was revealed yesterday.

Peter Magowan, the former head of the Safeway grocery chain and managing general partner of the Giants from 1993 to 2008, was a regular visitor to the island.

Mr Magowan died on Sunday, aged 76.

His friend, Stephen West, a Bermudian architect, has been invited to speak at a celebration of Mr Magowan’s life at the team’s Oracle Park on San Francisco Bay.

Mr West said their friendship started 35 years ago through his cousin, John Sculley, the former chief executive of computer firm Apple.

He added: “John asked me to entertain some friends from San Francisco when they came to the island. We met and, bang, we became best friends.”

Mr West said: “Pete was a fantastic person, larger than life, extremely intelligent, but very humble.

“He was a high-profile guy, but a normal, very modest person.”

Mr West said Mr Magowan and his wife, Debby, would visit “every couple of years” with their last visit at Easter last year.

He said: “Peter loved Bermuda and came here as much as he could.”

The two families often visited each another. Mr Magowan would take his guests to baseball games and Mr West would take the Magowans to cricket matches.

Mr West said: “He was a complete expert on baseball; he had grown up with it, and then he put a syndicate together and took over the Giants.

“He saved them from leaving San Francisco and going to Florida.

“Baseball was a fascinating game when you listened to him describe it. He knew almost exactly what would happen in the next play.”