Major League Baseball

Nagy axed for not beaning hitters?

Published Oct. 9, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

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Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers wants everybody to know that he's a tough guy and he won't put up with anything other than an "eye for an eye" mentality, specifically on the mound.

On Tuesday, Towers went on Arizona Sports 620's "Burns and Gambo" radio show and expressed displeasure for his pitchers' lack of grit. He felt his pitchers didn't intentionally throw at enough batters this season. Only he did so much more than that.

First on Tuesday, he fired pitching coach Charles Nagy. Nagy, a three-time All-Star in his 14 seasons as a player, had been Arizona's pitching coach for three seasons. Then on the radio show, he played a stunning game of verbal beanball.

In reference to a late-season 8-1 smackdown the Diamondbacks endured that saw some Dodger players enjoying bananas in the dugout, Towers told 620:

For those who aren’t familiar with the banana incident. This picture should do the trick.

Towers told 620 that after that game he had a talk with his coaching staff, but apparently could not get his message across:

Maybe Towers is right. His team did finish a dismal eighth (out of 30) in the majors, hitting only 60 opposing batters. One of those, however, was this tremendous display of fortitude.

This one must have brought a tear to Towers' eye. That pitch was thrown by perennial macho man, Ian Kennedy, a man Towers traded away to the San Diego Padres only one month later.

Maybe Towers was too intimidated by Kennedy's display of raw power and brawn. Maybe Towers had no choice but to enforce his own eye-for-an-eye mentality by flexing his big GM muscles to send the pitcher packing.

Who knows.

But Towers said he would get rid of more pitchers, if he could:

So he's now made his opinion crystal clear, right? More beaning, or you're off the team.

Well not quite. After the inevitable backlash his comments received, Towers decided to clarify on his weekly broadcast show on KTAR 620 AM Tuesday afternoon:

Sure man, that clarifies what "pitching in" is, but it doesn't quite do anything to the fact that you said you wanted to fire a carton of baseballs at Dodger players who were just being great friends and feeding each other bananas.

No, in this instance, Towers would have done better having a banana stuffed down his throat.

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