Gunslinger Kevin Towers Settling In as Diamondbacks General Manager

Filed under: Diamondbacks, Padres, NL West

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Kevin Towers loathed the Diamondbacks in their heyday, calling them arrogant when he was general manager of the Padres, so it's something to see him now amid the sagebrush and cactus, talking of his paradise found as Arizona's GM.

Yet, where better than the Old West for a GM who shoots from the hip and has Gunslinger in his email address? Among his favorite spots in Phoenix is Rawhide, an Old West town where, for a PR stunt 11 years ago, he and other Padres honchos assembled in gunslinger garb.

But it's far more than locale that has Towers smiling on this February morning as he reviews his first five months on the job.

For all his headline-grabbing trades and quips as Padres GM, he wasn't always allowed to indulge his, well, his gunslinger-ishness, sometimes for his own good, he admits, citing mostly his early years as a GM under the savvy, if obsessive Larry Lucchino. Now, befitting his 14 years of GM experience, he's getting more elbow room.

"It's a perfect job," he says.

Most fun he's had in a decade-plus, he adds, calling Diamondback-dom "the best working environment" of any front office where he's worked.

 

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/02/24/gunslinger-kevin-towers-settling-in-as-diamondbacks-general-mana/

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