Amid loss of Phillies icons in tough year, Bowa reflects
Meghan Montemurro
PHILADELPHIA – For a few minutes, Larry Bowa's typical No. 10 Phillies jersey featured a different name across the back.
Bowa, along with seven others from the 1993 World Series team, wore No. 10 jerseys as they stood around home plate on Aug. 13 in honor of Darren Daulton on Alumni Weekend. The recognition was the culmination of what's been a difficult five months for the Phillies, involving much more than their Major League Baseball-worst record.
Since late March, the organization has lost three icons in Dallas Green, Hall of Famer Jim Bunning and Daulton as well as longtime Phillie Ruben Amaro Sr.
Green was instrumental as manager of the 1980 World Series title team while Daulton was the heart of the surprise 1993 squad that reached the World Series. Amaro spent more than 30 years with Philadelphia, including six as a player, and was the first-base coach in 1980.
“It’s hard. It’s sad,” Bowa said. “But I try to revert back and think about all the good things that happened with those guys.”
Each of the four former Phillies were on Bowa’s mind during the Phillies’ annual Alumni Weekend Aug. 10-13.
Few within the organization felt the totality of the losses as much as Bowa.
When you’ve been with one organization as long as Bowa has – 33 years as one of only eight players in franchise history to be a player, manager, and coach for the Phillies – connections have been forged between generations of players spanning from Bunning, born in 1931, to Nick Williams, who at 23 is the youngest player on the team.
“It makes me feel like I’m getting up there in age,” Bowa chuckled.
“The fact that I’ve been in the organization that long, I’ve had guys come up to me after the fact saying I want to thank you,” Bowa added. “At the time they were [swearing] at me and now they come up and say, I know what you were talking about. To me that means more – sometimes tough love is hard to do.”
Bowa became emotional, eyes tearing up, as he talked about how they all fought through their respective illnesses.
“It’s a mixed bag,” Bowa said. “It’s good to see all the guys [during Alumni Weekend], but there’s a void with those four guys not being here. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.”
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Phillies chairman David Montgomery acknowledged how tough this stretch has been for the organization.
“We know we’re not going to live forever, but we root for each other to get where I am in life, in your 70s and whatnot,” Montgomery said after Daulton’s death two weeks ago. “… I had my little challenge [with cancer] a year after he did and the reality when Darren and I would talk it’d be, ‘David, how are you doing?’ Mine came and went. His was along to stay.”
During a speech to fans on Alumni Weekend, Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt reminded everyone to “live every day like it’s the last.” Bowa enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with former teammates like Steve Carlton and Tony Taylor.
Bowa was happy to see Phillies players standing in the dugout watching the Aug. 12 tribute video to those icons.
Although they probably wouldn't admit it, Bowa said some players probably didn’t know who some of them were. Bowa would like to see MLB educate players about a team’s history after getting drafted as part of the league’s prospect program. He suggested the idea to Joe Torre, MLB’s chief baseball officer, that prospects should be taken to Cooperstown to go through the exhibits and learn the history of the game and about their respective franchise.
“I think it’s important in that it shows respect,” Bowa said. “It shows that hey, I’m going to learn how it started off up to the present time… I think that would behoove our whole organization to have them look at the Phillies’ shrines and all the guys that played.”
The losses suffered by the franchise adds another wrinkle to a trying season. Like any manager or coach, Bowa took the job as the Phillies' bench coach in 2014 knowing there were no guarantees about how good the team would be.
He's kept everything in perspective, even as the Phillies own a 43-77 record entering Saturday.
“This is a great organization,” Bowa said. “I know people right now are down on the organization because they want that instant gratification. It’s not like football. It’s not like basketball. It’s different. You’ve got to pay your dues and go through ups and downs.”
Contact Meghan Montemurro at mmontemurro@delawareonline.