Going to bat for him

Framed and propped on Kevin Towers's desk in San Diego is a quote given to him by Larry Lucchino about eight or nine years ago.

It reads: ''Nothing is sometimes a good thing to do but always a good thing to say." The word ''always" is underlined.

''He always used to say, 'Kevin, you're too [expletive] honest. You say too much. Nothing is OK,' " said Towers, who in 1995 at age 34 was hired by Lucchino, then the Padres' CEO, to become the team's general manager. Towers since has proven an outspoken and accessible presence among a group of 30 men who often avoid speaking candidly to the media.

''One day he got [upset] at me and was screaming," Towers said. ''He had this framed and put on my desk. It's been there ever since."

Towers told this story Friday, not out of spite but appreciation. Among major league GMs, few are bigger fans of Theo Epstein than Towers and Toronto's J.P. Ricciardi. But both went out of their way Friday, in the course of discussing Epstein's return, to point out Lucchino's undeniable value to the Sox and to express disappointment in the public beating the team's president and CEO has absorbed this offseason.

Ricciardi, who follows the Sox closely as a Worcester native, Massachusetts homeowner, and AL East GM, said, ''Larry is said to be a lot of things, but the Red Sox have made a lot of money because of him.

''I think Larry's gotten a bum rap on a lot of stuff. I don't think it's fair. It would be in poor taste to dismiss him as the local bad guy. His value is being seen in the bottom line. A lot of the financial situation they're in is because of Larry.

''Say what you want about Red Sox Nation, but since this group has been in place they've generated more revenue. It's really been unfair some of the stuff said about Larry. Yeah, he's probably demanding and hard-working, but do you know anybody who's successful who isn't?

''I'm not defending anyone or taking either side. I don't know Larry because I don't work with him. You don't know until you work with him. But I have a lot of respect for Larry Lucchino. I don't know the situation, but I know he's done more good things than bad, everywhere he's been."

Towers, who watched as Lucchino got a new ballpark built in San Diego, said, ''He's a marketing genius. He's incredible. I like him. I do. I know there's a side that's tough to deal with, he pushes and pushes. As a young GM, he challenged me and challenged me. He made me better.

''At the time, it didn't seem that way. It got old. But I look back and he made me better. Nothing was easy. I don't care if it was a waiver claim. He made me really think it out.

''In the long run, there are still things I learned six or seven years ago that I recall."