SAN DIEGO -- The Padres have spent the past three days toasting the 20th anniversary of their 1998 club -- a team that won 98 games, a National League pennant and is widely regarded as the best in franchise history. On Saturday, they bestowed a considerable honor on "the architect" of that squad, late general manager Kevin Towers, who died in January.
Towers, who served as GM from 1995-2009 and presided over four of the franchise's five NL West titles, was posthumously inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame in a moving pregame ceremony Saturday night.
Towers' wife, Kelley, delivered the ceremonial first pitch after speeches from executive chairman Ron Fowler and former Padres Trevor Hoffman and Wally Joyner.