Skip to main content

Kevin Towers Dead At 56



Former Padres General Manager Kevin Towers passed away today after a long battle with cancer at 56.

This is unbearably heartbreaking news.

Towers, while not a perfect GM, oversaw Padres teams for 15 seasons (KT was a member of the organization for nearly 30 years, more than half his life!)- and he was one of the most gifted talent evaluators of his generation.

When he needed to, he could bring stars players into town- like Kevin Brown, who had one of the best seasons of any pitcher in baseball history. Brown was worth almost 10 WAR in his lone year with the Padres after Towers pulled the trigger and acquired him from the (surprise!) Florida Marlins...some things never change.

Towers turned throwaway players like Heath Bell, Rondell White, and Mark Loretta into All Stars, and acquired franchise cornerstones Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Klesko, Phil Nevin, and Brian Giles. This is just a shortlist- one could build entire rosters of overlooked players that Towers turned into impact contributors for the Padres.

And while under his watch, there were many painful misfires (*cough* Matt Bush *cough*) in the MLB draft, Towers' scouting acumen was responsible for some very remarkable successes. Towers drafted many notable fan favorites, including Jake Peavy, Chase Headley, Wil Venable and Kahlil Greene.

Under his watch, the Padres won four division titles- by far the most successful period in franchise history. That success came in spite of the fact that Towers had a fraction of the monetary resources at his disposal compared to big-market teams like the Yankees.

But the most important consequence of Towers' tenure as GM? 1998.

In large part, Towers was responsible for crafting the 1998 World Series team- the best in franchise history. In large part due to the success of 1998, the Padres were able to secure funding to build PETCO Park.

So yeah, Kevin Towers' most powerful, most enduring, most important legacy? Securing the future of Padres baseball for generations to come.

Without hyperbole, he is the most impactful front office executive in the history of the team.

Towers should be considered among Padres greats, in the same vein as Coleman, Kroc, Bochy, Hoffman, and Gwynn. While he was the architect of our favorite Padres memories- may his memory live on forever.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

.500

So.......... Raise your hand if you thought that 10 games in to the season, the Padres would be at .500? *waits patiently* Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way: THE PADRES ARE AT .500! Not only that, but we've won two of our first three series- one of which was against the Giants, who have more or less dominated the NL West this decade. This is the same team that ESPN could not find a single reason to have hope for before the season kicked off. They couldn't be more wrong- this team is overflowing with reasons to hope.  First off, Manny Margot. The man looks like an absolute star in the making- before, we knew that he could be a first division regular easily. The only thing missing was the power- if it developed, he'd be a bona fide five-tool star. And boy, does it look like it's developing. He's currently tied for eighth in the league with three home runs, and has also shown impressive gap power.  Even though small sample size i...
Post a Comment
Read more

This Team Makes Me Drink Turns 1- A Padres Game Celebration

Hard to believe that I've been writing this blog for an entire year now! It's even harder to believe that, of all things, I felt compelled to start This Team Makes Me Drink because I vehemently disagreed with Melvin Upton, Jr. being traded - that hot take ( Melvin Upton goes to the 6!!!) didn't age too well. I genuinely thought that I would write a couple posts, get bored, and completely forget about ever writing about sports again- but alas, here we are, a full trip around the sun later- and what better way to celebrate TTMMD turning a year old than by going to a Padre game ? And what a celebration it was. The Padres won, 7-5, splitting the series with the Mets, and more importantly, allowing me to experience my first Padres W in over two calendar years. My thoughts/stray observations from my experience are below, but first, a few acknowledgments: I'd like to give a big shoutout to my Mom being my #1 reader and for unfailingly promoting this blog on all of h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Who Will Manage the Padres Next?

The 2019 season was the year the Padres were supposed to materialize their immense potential into tangible results on the field, and manager Andy Green was supposed to be the guy that led that charge.  Instead, 2019 was the year that the Padres abruptly pulled the plug on the Green administration after the team limped to the end of yet another lost season, only two years after they had extended his contract. 2019 was supposed to be different- and there were times when it was: the Padres were .500 at the All Star break for the first time in seemingly forever. However, they’ve been abysmal since then, sporting a 25-47 record since then.  Certainly, the onus for the Padres second half collapse does not fall squarely on Andy Green- but it appears that Barry Bloom of Forbes was (as much as I’m loathe to admit it) correct: Green had lost the respect of his players.  I mean- look at Wil Myers in this video; he can barely hide the smirk on his face when...
Post a Comment
Read more