D-Backs GM Kevin Towers Calls For 'Eye-For-An-Eye' Retaliation
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Kevin Towers is frustrated with the Diamondbacks' attitude -- or lack thereof. The general manager wants to see some retaliation -- "an eye for an eye" -- if one of his players gets plunked.
And if you're not comfortable with that, the door is that-a-way.
Yep, Hammurabi's code is coming to Arizona.
Towers was particularly upset after an early September game against the Dodgers, when Los Angeles players gleefully chowed down on bananas in the dugout after going on a home-run spree.
"I was sitting behind right 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. ... 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," Towers said Tuesday on KTAR-AM in Phoenix.
"That's not who we are as Diamondbacks, that's not how -- I mean, it's a reflection on (manager Kirk Gibson), on myself, on our entire organization," he added. "They slapped us around and we took it, you know?"
Towers said he "went down and had a few choice words for the staff after that ballgame." But it had little effect on the D-Backs.
"You'd think the GM comes down and makes it a point to talk to the staff about it that at we need to start protecting our own and doing things differently," he said. "Probably a week later, (Paul Goldschmidt) gets dinged and no retaliation. It's like 'Wait a minute.'
"Not that I don't take any of our guys from a lesser standpoint, but if Goldy's getting hit, it's an eye for an eye. Somebody's going down or somebody's going to get jackknifed."
Towers put all his hurlers on notice during the radio interview -- get ready to retaliate or you're outta here.
"Some of them, contractually, it's tough to move," Towers said. "But I think come spring training, it will be duly noted that it's going to be an eye for an eye and we're going to protect one another.
"And if not, if you have options, there's ways to get you out of here. And (if) you don't follow suit or you don't feel comfortable doing it, you probably don't belong in a Diamondbacks uniform."
Arizona fired pitching coach Charles Nagy on Tuesday.
"Those were things that were taught to you very early in your professional career, you know, an eye for an eye," Towers said. "Not that you're out to end somebody's career or to hurt somebody."
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