October 9th, 2013 at 11:18 am 
by Ron Cervenka It is a saying that I heard many times from my dad while growing up: “Son, you missed a perfect opportunity to keep your mouth shut.” And the older I got, the more I came to realize the wisdom of his words (usually too late).
Apparently Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers’ father wasn’t quite so wise.
It is being widely reported that the general manager of what is rapidly becoming one of the most despised teams in all of baseball (even by their own fans) came out publicly on Tuesday telling the media that he was furious that his pitchers did not intentionally hit Dodger batters in retaliation for what he perceived as being disrespectful towards his players, specifically Yasiel Puig playfully feeding Juan Uribe a banana in the dugout.
Really? You’re going to drill a guy for that?
“I was sitting behind home plate that game and when it showed up on the Diamondvision of stuffing bananas down their throats, I felt like we were a punching bag,” Towers told an Arizona radio station on Tuesday. “Literally, if I would have had a carton of baseballs I would have fired them into the dugout from where I was sitting behind home plate.”
Is this something that an opposing team should retaliate against? Dbacks GM Kevin Towers thinks so. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
Towers went on to say that he was furious that his coaches and even his well-liked manager Kirk Gibson allowed such antics to go unchecked.
“That’s not who we are as Diamondbacks,” Towers continued in his rant. “That’s not how – I mean, it’s a reflection on Gibby, on myself, on our entire organization. They slapped us around and we took it.”
Dude – your team got their butts handed to them in that game – primarily because of Juan Uribe’s three home runs. Don’t be angry at Puig or any of the other Dodger players for enjoying a career moment for Uribe, be angry at the ineptitude of your pitching staff for their inability to keep the ball off the middle of the plate. That’s who you need to fire a dozen baseballs at.
Maybe it’s the desert heat but Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers has lost his mind. (Photo credit – Christian Petersen)
And don’t think for one second that Towers’ schizophrenic-like outburst is merely a publicity stunt, it most certainly is not. Earlier in the day Towers fired pitching coach Charles Nagy and first base coach Steve Sax who, coincidentally, is a well loved and revered former Dodger.
Even though there are many who strongly oppose the so-called Baseball Codes, the ‘unwritten rules’ of the game, they are not going away anytime soon, and for the most part rightfully so – they have been a part of the game for over 130 years. And while the Code says that it is generally accepted for MLB pitchers to intentionally throw at batters in retaliation for their own players being hit and for things like showing up a team by stealing bases and bunting with a 7+ run lead (to name only two), throwing at batters for horsing around a little in the dugout is not in the unwritten rules – except perhaps in Kevin Towers’ own unwritten rules.
Taking this one step further, Towers was incensed that Gibson did not order a ‘hit’ against the Dodgers after his own precious Paul Goldschmidt was hit by a pitch during a recent Dbacks/Dodgers series. Hellooooo… Earth to Kevin Towers – here’s a clue: June 11, 2013? Ian Kennedy? Miguel Montero? Yasiel Puig hit in the head? Zack Greinke almost hit in the head but he turned and was hit in the shoulder instead? The Dbacks are lucky that only Goldschmidt was hit.
At some point in time (and probably relatively soon) Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Joe Torre will undoubtedly be forced to step in and (hopefully) tell Towers to get his head out of his… to talk some sense into Towers, because if he does not, that so-called ‘goodwill tour’ to Sydney, Australia to kickoff the 2014 season might turn into an international incident. Unfortunately, with an owner like Ken Kendrick and a general manager like Kevin Towers, you can pretty bet that the worst is yet to come.
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Author’s note:
Thanks to Arizona Sports for the link to our September 10, 2013 post Uribe toys with history on historical night at Dodger Stadium
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RT @Think_BlueLA: New post: Dbacks GM misses perfect opportunity to keep his mouth shut – http://t.co/Y04G8VeG3X #Dodgers #Dodgerfam @Dodg…
@Think_BlueLA @Octim1 @Dodgers Why do they even keep him on? What a whining assbag!
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post: Dbacks GM misses perfect opportunity to keep his mouth shut – http://t.co/Y04G8VeG3X #Dodgers #Dodgerfam @Dodg…
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post: Dbacks GM misses perfect opportunity to keep his mouth shut – http://t.co/Y04G8VeG3X #Dodgers #Dodgerfam @Dodg…
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post: Dbacks GM misses perfect opportunity to keep his mouth shut – http://t.co/Y04G8VeG3X #Dodgers #Dodgerfam @Dodg…
MLB should send a mesage to him right now and fine him a substantial sum, say $250K and a suspension along the lines of what the New Orleans Saints coaches got. We all know the unwritten rules in baseball. We also know you don’t publicly speak about them, especially during playoff week, as the Commish has already ordered teams to not deflect their news from post-season play stories. For a GM to go out and speak his mind in this way, advocating that the opposition gets hit, well that’s a lofty fine in my book. Careers end with beanballs, and that D-Back team was throwing at heads, not bodies earlier in the season.
What a joke the Diamondback organization has become. From ownership and “jersey-gate” to their GM to the head-hunting to whining about the pool. Now this. Sax should consider himself fortunate that he’s out of that organization. Rawitch and Hall are probably having second thoughts about their moves to the desert.
As you noted, Evan, Derrick Hall and Josh Rawitch are arguably the best in the business at their respective jobs and must be very uncomfortable with all of the various (fill-in-the-blank)-gates going on with what was once one of the finest franchises in the game. But as with anything else, it always starts at the top and flows downhill, just like…….
I owe so very much to Josh Rawitch – things that I will never be able to repay, and to see him yet again on a sinking ship (as he was with the McCourt Dodgers – which is why he and Derrick left in the first place) simply breaks my heart.
@Think_BlueLA @Octim1 @Dodgers that AZ sun frys people’s brains.
#diamondbacks GM anger management issues. Sad for Steve #Sax. Beware @Dodgers. He’s got a list apparently. http://t.co/b9RB7rSFYS
As you may or may not know, I had a personal conversation with Kendricks on the phone a few days after the game where he made the Dodger fans change out of the blue attire they were wearing, right on national TV. I posed as a D Backs fan, and Mr. Kendrick’s told me and I quote “we always have the most trouble with Dodger fans at our games, and I would really rather not have them attend our home games!” With that said, and all the shenanigans in the games that followed after my conversation with him, you can better believe Kendrick and Towers have had some pretty spirited conversations about the Dodgers!
Folks, I think this has just become the new Cold War of the MLB!
It’s hard to believe that people intelligent enough to become a general manager of a Major League baseball team could have a mind that thinks like that. I thinks that’s very dangerous.