Towers served as the Padres GM from '95-'09 and was a popular figure among his front office counterpartsTWITTER
A memorial service for late Padres and D-backs GM KEVIN TOWERS was heldyesterday at Petco Park, and "hundreds of current and former players, scouts, managers and front-office executives who worked with Towers gathered" on the infield and "listened as stories and memories were shared by a variety of speakers over a two-hour-plus ceremony," according to Ryan Posner of MLB.com. Towers died at 56 on Jan. 30 after "battling a rare form of thyroid cancer for over a year." Giants manager BRUCE BOCHY, Rockies manager BUD BLACK, Yankees Senior VP & GM BRIAN CASHMAN, Cubs President of Baseball Operations THEO EPSTEIN, former Padres P TREVOR HOFFMAN and Reds Exec Advisor to the CEO WALT JOCKETTY "made up a sampling of people who spoke." Guest after guest "took to the microphone to share countless stories of Towers' travels, from trade talks, to long nights at the Winter Meetings, to his ingratiating personality that made him one of the league's most-popular executives" (MLB.com, 2/25). Epstein: "There was never such a thing as ‘a nobody’ to Kevin Towers. That’s just not how he was wired. He didn’t care if you were the president of a team or an intern, if you were a star player or a clubbie, if you were a national writer or the backup guy at some local paper, he would treat you like an equal" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 2/26). The AP's Jay Paris noted Jocketty "hired Towers as a special assistant" in '15, what "turned out to be Towers' final baseball job." Jocketty said, "He was one of the guys that always brought all the GMs together. Kevin loved life and lived it to the fullest. He suffered a lot in the last two years, but he always stayed positive and fought a brave fight. There will never be another KT" (AP, 2/25). YAHOO SPORTS' Tim Brown wrote under the header, "Sendoff For Former GM Kevin Towers Filled With Memories Of Wild Parties, Love And Infamous World Series Call" (2/25).
