Lawrence Robert Bowa was born December 6, 1945 in Sacramento, California. His dad was an infielder in the Cardinals organization but never played in the big leagues. Bowa didn’t make his high school baseball team & while at Sacramento City College only had the Phillies interested in him. When the scouts went to see him, he got thrown out of the game for arguing. Bowa has always been a fiery player, as well as coach & manager later in his career.
He always had a quick temper & has been known to throw an occasional water cooler & get tossed out of games. Eventually the Phillies signed the young Bowa as an amateur free agent in 1965. The sure handed solid fielding short stop hit .300 in his first minor league season. He played in the minors for five years & after batting .287 in 1969 made the 1970 Phillies team.
In 1970 he came in third in the Rookie of the Year voting batting .250 with 24 stolen bases, but it was his fielding that would make Bowa famous. He became one of the National Leagues best short stops in the seventies, winning two gold gloves, making five All Star teams, leading the league in fielding six times, & assists once. In 1979, Bowa set an MLB record for shortstops with a .991 fielding average.
Bowa put in a few good offensive seasons as well. He batted over .280 four times, including one .300 season in 1975. He was a good base runner stealing 20 or more bases in nine different seasons.
Other notable offensive achievements include; leading the league in triples (13) in 1972 coming in the top ten five times as well as sac hits (18) coming in the league’s top five four times. He led the league in singles (153) in 1978, at bats (650) in 1971 coming in the top ten six times & was in the league’s top ten in hits four times.
Bowa played in Philadelphia for 12 seasons, playing alongside Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt when he arrived in 1973 onward. Together they led the Phillies to five NL Eastern Titles & one World Series victory. In his first two NLCS appearances he only had three hits in 25 at bats, posting a .125 batting average. In the 1978 NLCS he hit .333 with six hits, two runs scored & a walk against the Dodgers.
In the 1980 NLCS against Houston he batted .316 with two runs scored. In the final Game #5 with the Phillies down 5-2 Bowa started an 8th inning rally with a base hit & scored when Nolan Ryan walked Pete Rose with the bases loaded. In the World Series he batted .375 with nine hits, three stolen bases, driving in a run in Game #2 with a base hit & another in Game #4 . He had three hits in Game #3 which the Royals won 4-3 & two more in the next game.
By 1981 he wasn’t getting along with Phillies management any longer & expressed his will to be traded. His former manager Dallas Green now a GM in Chicago with the Cubs dealt Ivan DeJesus for him but demanded a youngster named Ryne Sandberg come along as well. Bowa veteran leadership helped mentor Sandberg & got the Cubs to the post season in 1984. Bowa hit .200. In 1985 he was released by the Cubs in August & was quickly picked up by the New York Mets.
Everyone seems to forget Bowa finished his long 16 year career with the Mets. In 14 games in New York he went 2-19 (.105) with two RBIs, both of them coming on September 13th at Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
Bowa finished his career with 8414 at bats (102nd all time) 2191 hits (178th all time) 1815 singles (78th all time) 151 sacrifice hits (170th all time) 262 doubles 99 triples 15 HRs 525 RBIs & a .260 batting average. Defensively e is 6th all time in games played at short (2222) seventh in fielding % (.980) 9th in assists (6857) 30th in put outs (3314).
Retirement: After his playing days he became manager of the San Diego Padres (1987-1988) then came home to his old team the Phillies as a coach from 1989-1996. He became their manager in 2001 winning the Manager of the Year Award, finishing in second place & after failing to make the post season was fired in 2004. He was also a coach in Anaheim, New York, Seattle & recently with the Dodgers under Joe Torre since 2008. Bowas has also worked for ESPN & Sirius XM on the MLB Channel.
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