All these years later, the ridiculous cover to the San Diego Padres’ 2000 media guide still encapsulates gunslinger GM Kevin Towers.

Wearing a cowboy hat, a trench coat, a black kerchief around his neck, blue jeans, black boots and a holster on his right hip, Towers posed with owner John Moores, president/CEO Larry Lucchino and manager Bruce Bochy. The sheriff’s badge in the top right-hand corner announced: “BEST IN THE WEST OVER THE LAST 4 YEARS.”

San Diego trolled Los Angeles Dodgers GM Kevin Malone, who declared “There’s a new sheriff in town” when he took that job near the end of a 1998 season in which the Padres reached the World Series.

Towers didn’t take himself too seriously or play it safe when he saw an opening or pretend that overseeing a professional sports team is like running a covert CIA operation.

The man known simply as KT loved the action. That made Tuesday’s news so difficult to stomach, leaving the Major League Baseball community in mourning after Towers died of thyroid cancer at the age of 56.

“He really was a larger-than-life personality,” said Jason McLeod, the Cubs’ senior vice president of scouting and player development. “He meant so much to a lot of people. He gave so many of us opportunities, brought a lot of us together as friends.”

Those connections helped launch Theo Epstein near the beginning of his Hall of Fame career, shaping what would eventually become The Cubs Way. Epstein and McLeod both started working for the Padres in the mid-1990s — as a PR guy and an intern in baseball operations, respectively — and watched the way Towers ran his department and interacted with everyone around the team.

Terms like “old school” and “gutsy” diminish what are really subtle analytical skills needed to do the job. Some of the core beliefs in Epstein’s front office that helped end the 108-year drought — an open structure, a passion for amateur scouting, the belief in makeup and clubhouse chemistry — have roots in San Diego.

“KT was great about really hearing a lot of voices,” McLeod said. “Just getting different opinions in a way that kept it light. A real baseball guy, a scout’s scout, too. He loved projecting, but he had a very good feel for people, a really good feel for how people are wired.

“It wasn’t just the tools. He was really banking on the person.”

The same way the Cubs bet on Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant and what’s become a perennial contender. During the early stages of the Wrigley Field rebuild — when no one knew if The Plan would actually work for the Cubs — Towers memorably summed up what drove Epstein.

“He’s got zero fear,” Towers said during the middle of his run as the Arizona Diamondbacks GM (2010-2014). “He’s a great friend, but he would step on my neck, slice my throat to win. That’s just who he is.”

Those money quotes made Towers a go-to guy for reporters who waste a lot of time standing around the clubhouse and staking out the lobby during the winter meetings, only to get well-rehearsed clichés. That energy and unpredictability made Towers so popular among players, scouts, executives and the media.

McLeod remembered the sushi-and-bowling nights during spring training in Arizona, where Padres staffers would gather around Towers to drink sake bombs and pitchers of beer and then go to the next dive bar. McLeod also remembered a renaissance man who could talk music and fine wine, a natural leader who didn’t feel threatened or become territorial and stayed involved until the end as a special assistant for the Cincinnati Reds.

“He could hold court at the winter meetings, like the stories that have been out there,” McLeod said. “And you could have a really intimate, emotional conversation with him as well. He was so instrumental to a lot of people in the game.

“Obviously, Theo and myself included as young 20-somethings — he gave us both great opportunities and gave us some rope. He encouraged us to go scout amateurs around Southern California when we didn’t really know what we were doing yet.

“Just an incredible personality and a guy who really, really enjoyed life.”

The days of gunslinger GMs are pretty much gone — just look at how many free agents are still out there during Super Bowl week — as Ivy League front offices are consumed with Big Data and groupthink. But Towers’ presence will still be felt for however long this run goes at Wrigley Field.

“That’s the thing that set KT apart in this game, and in life,” Epstein told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. “There are so many instances in this game where people look to squeeze every last bit of value out of a transaction, or every last bit of self-interest out of an interaction. KT was the opposite. He was never that way.

“Whether it was how he treated people, people he just met, friends or how he approached his job, he wanted other people to be happy, too. He wanted things to be fair. He didn’t look to extract every last ounce of self-interest. That’s how he approached his job. That’s how he approached life. It’s what made him so universally loved. Who wouldn’t want to be around someone like that?”

(Top photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)