The new president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants was born in Sudbury.
Farhan Zaidi, 41, was named to the post Tuesday after spending four years as GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was born in Sudbury to parents Sadiq and Anjum, but didn't live here for very long. Sadiq Zaidi worked for Inco for three years.
Zaidi moved with his family to the Phillipines when he was four, although he cheered for the Blue Jays while he was growing up.
According to the Giants' news release, the Dodgers won four consecutive division titles with Zaidi as GM, while advancing to the National League Championship Series the last three years and the World Series the last two seasons. During that four-year span, the Dodgers posted the second-best winning percentage in all of baseball, the release said.
"I am delighted to return to the Bay Area and to join one of the most storied franchises in the game," said Zaidi.
"I have watched the Giants from afar and I have great respect for the organization's culture and many accomplishments. I am excited about this new opportunity and I'm looking forward to getting right to work."
He earned his bachelor of science degree in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998 and a Ph.D in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011.
Before his time with the Dodgers, Zaidi spent 10 years with the Oakland Athletics, rising from being an operations analyst to an assistant GM.
In addition to being the first MLB president born in Sudbury, he was the first Muslim to be a major league GM and, now, president of a big league club.
