Bowa changes pinstripes for pinstriped suit
At 71, and with the manager he’d served the past twoplus seasons politely kicked to a crowded front-office sideline, Phillies icon Larry Bowa will no longer be working in the uniform in which he’s toiled for much of the past five decades.
Instead, Bowa will serve in largely the same role other honorary Phillies heroes have been plugged into, that of “senior advisor to the general manager.”
Bowa, who at season’s end made an almost impassioned plea to stay in the Phillies’ organization in some fashion, will do just that. He has spent 52 years in professional baseball as a player, coach, manager and broadcast analyst for the sport.
For the vast majority of that time, Philadelphia has been his home.
“Philadelphia has been my home for the last four decades and I bleed Phillies red,” Bowa said in a statement announcing his new appointment Friday. “Whether it is at the major or minor league level, my number one goal is to help the Phillies organization bring home another championship for our fans.”
An unlikely and undersized infielder from Sacramento City College, Bowa was signed by the Phillies in 1966, and proceeded to climb the minor-league ladder. He finally made the Phillies roster in 1970, and essentially turned himself into a better than average hitter while becoming one of the majors’ best shortstops of the 1970s.
His career hit a pinnacle with a World Series victory in 1980, but prior to the 1982 season he joined his former Phillies manager Dallas Green in Chicago via a trade which also saw Ryne Sandberg go with him to the Cubs for Ivan DeJesus.
Bowa and Sandberg helped the Cubs get to the playoffs in 1984, their first trip there in 39 years. He’d play one more season, split between the Cubs and Mets, before retiring and going into managing.
He managed in the San Diego minor league system in 1986 and was hired to manage the Padres in 1987, lasting only until the end of May 1988 before getting fired. Bowa then went back to the Phillies, serving as third base coach for nine years before coaching in Anaheim and Seattle. Again he came back to the Phillies, this time as manager from 2001-04. Bowa would then coach for the Yankees and Dodgers, along with successful television forays.
He then re-joined the Phillies in 2014 as Sandberg’s bench coach, serving in the same capacity under Pete Mackanin after Sandberg quit in 2015.
“Larry Bowa is a genuine Phillies icon and he has made enormous contributions to this franchise during his 33 years in uniform,” general manager Matt Klentak said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for what Larry has accomplished throughout his baseball career and I am thrilled that he has agreed to continue to impact the organization in this new role.”
Bowa will have plenty of company in this unfamiliar role out of uniform.
Former manager Charlie Manuel and ex-GM and president Pat Gillick are also senior advisors to Klentak, as is Benny Looper. Bowa’s former bench and front office boss Green had served as a “senior advisor” for the Phillies for nearly two decades until shortly before his death last March.
Klentak also has five guys drawing paychecks as “special assistant to the GM,” a group that includes recently fired manager Mackanin.