 Larry Bowa was born in Sacramento, California in 1945, the son of a minor league ball player. Bowa failed to make the high school baseball team during his youth but quickly gained fame playing short stop with the Sacramento City College baseball team. Bowa went undrafted in the 1965 MLB baseball draft and signed an amateur contract with the only team that showed him any interest, the Philadelphia Phillies. Larry Bowa made his major league debut playing short stop for the Phillies in April of 1970. Larry quickly became known as a scrappy hard nosed player and won the admiration of Phillies fans. Bowa made 5 All Star teams in the 1970s and won 2 gold gloves at Short Stop. He helped the Phillies win 3 straight NL Eastern Division titles, only to fall short of the World Series each time. Finally in 1980, Larry Bowa and the Philadelphia Phillies snapped a century long draught by claiming a World Series Title by defeating the Kansas City Royals in 6 games. Bowa played 12 seasons in Philadelphia before being traded, along with rookie second baseman Ryne Sandburg, to the Chicago Cubs in 1982. Bowa played 3 seasons with the Cubs and was released late in the 1985 season. The Mets signed Larry Bowa late in the 1985 season and finished the season with the Mets before being released at the end of the season. Bowa retired shortly afterwards having played 16 seasons in the big leagues. He compiled a .260 lifetime batting average but was better known for his glove. He finished his career with a Major League record .980 lifetime fielding percentage at Short Stop. He also had the season fielding percentage record at .991 and had the National League record for most games at Short stop with 2222.
After his playing days were over, Larry Bowa went into coaching and was eventually named manager of the San Diego Padres in 1987. The Padres lost 97 games in 1987 and were on pace to do the same in 1988 when Bowa was fired only 46 games into the 1988 season. Bowa got his second chance to manage at the big league level in 2001 when he was named manager of his old club, the Philadelphia Phillies. Bowa led the Phillies to a 2nd place finish in 2001 and was named manager of the year. Unfortunately for Bowa, he was unable to improve upon his clubs 2nd place finish over the next 3 seasons and at the end of the 2004 season, he was once again fired as manager. Larry Bowa spent 1 year on ESPN as an analyst for Baseball Tonight before accepting a job with the New York Yankees to be the 3rd base coach in 2007. Larry Bowa went with Joe Torre to help coach the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008 where he currently can be found kicking up dirt around the 3rd baseline for the Dodgers. |
