D-backs executives attend celebration of life for Kevin Towers
Feb 25, 2018, 3:21 PM | Updated: 8:21 pm
FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2005, file photo, San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers, right, peaks during a baseball news conference in Dallas. Towers, whose 14-year tenure as general manager of the San Diego Padres included an appearance in the 1998 World Series, died Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, from complications of cancer, friend and former agent Barry Axelrod said. He was 56. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
Former Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers was remembered Sunday in San Diego, and D-backs CEO Derrick Hall and GM Mike Hazen were expected to have attended.
The Padres and the Towers family hosted a celebration of life at Petco Park for the former Diamondbacks general manager who passed away in January after a battle with cancer, according to the San Diego Tribune.
Outside of Hall and Hazen, Diamondbacks vice president Cullen Maxey, CFO Tom Harris and other D-backs employees attended the gathering.
Several current Diamondbacks players were drafted while Towers was GM, including Archie Bradley and Braden Shipley. Towers was also responsible for locking Paul Goldschmidt into a long term extension with the D-backs in 2013.
Towers headed the Diamondbacks’ front office from 2010-14 after leading the San Diego Padres’ organization from 1995-2009. The Padres went to the 1998 World Series, their second in franchise history.
The D-backs won the NL West in 2011 and with a 94-68 record lost to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS. Arizona went 320-328 (.494) under Towers’ leadership.
Towers was able to keep the news of his battle with cancer mostly private until it was revealed by Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch on a Stand Up to Cancer sign displayed during the 2017 World Series.
Hinch, who was the D-backs’ manager from 2009-2010, worked under Towers during his time in Arizona.
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