Daily Distractions: The Arizona Diamondbacks’ general manager took offense to the Dodgers eating bananas.

Mark McGwire brawl

The Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks brawled at Dodger Stadium in June, but pitcher Ian Kennedy wasn’t around to brush anyone back in September. By then, he had been traded to San Diego. (Getty Images)

Sports-talk radio is a breeding ground for talk of tribalism, vengeance and all those crude things that come from bitter rivalries. Such talk just usually doesn’t come from the mouth of a Major League Baseball general manager.

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Kevin Towers waded into those waters Tuesday. Pun intended. And it had nothing to do with the Dodgers’ celebration in the Chase Field swimming pool after they clinched a playoff berth on Sept. 19.

Towers took great offense to the Dodgers’ celebration on Sept. 9, when Juan Uribe went 4 for 4 with three home runs in an 8-1 Dodgers win . From arizonasports.com:

“I was sitting behind 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,” Towers told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns and Gambo Tuesday. “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.

“That’s not who we are as Diamondbacks, that’s not how — I mean, it’s a reflection on Gibby, on myself, on our entire organization. They slapped us around and we took it.”

Towers said that has to stop, and following the game he had “a few choice words for the (coaching) staff.”

Nothing changed.

“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 Goldy 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.”

After the season, the Diamondbacks dismissed pitching coach Charles Nagy and first-base coach Steve Sax.

No word yet on whether Towers made those moves before or after researching this stat:

 

Some bullet points for a World Post Day:


Don Mattingly gave a partial outline of his pitching plans for the National League Championship Series in an interview with Dan Patrick: “Greinke Game 1, and we’re looking at Kersh Game 2. We’re going to have discussions on Game 3. It may depend on who we play and how we match up there. We’ll go over the roster this afternoon a little bit.”

• The Dodgers announced today that they will offer free parking for the remainder of the playoffs for cars with four or more passengers.

• Well Vin Scully, this sports writer has nothing bad to say about Gillette’s vest-pocket edition of the Baseball Encyclopedia.

• If you still believe there are no ties in baseball, you must have missed Opening Day of the Arizona Fall League.

• In the Glendale Desert Dogs’ opener, Corey Seager went 2 for 4 with an RBI and struck out twice. Brian Cavazos-Galvez went 0 for 4 with a walk.

• Take a moment today to remember (or learn about) Andy Pafko, who died yesterday.

• Instant Karma might have struck Steve Garvey‘s windshield, but “the ends justifies the means,” as he tells colleague Jill Painter.

• Today is the birthday of both John and Sean Lennon, so this decades-old version of Sean covering “Dear Prudence” seems appropriate: