Bowa: Phillies’ troubles aren’t for lack of effort

PHILADELPHIA – He has been a player and a coach, a manager and an analyst, a fan and a fan-favorite. But mostly, he has been the Phillies’ fountain of truth.

Whether with a well-delivered frown, a wild high-five or a tell-it-as-he-felt-it outburst, he has at all times been real. It’s not every Philadelphia athlete who could snarl in the papers, ‘Worst fans in baseball,’ then receive an ovation the following night from those same fans, who’d understood that they had a little criticism coming.

No, regardless of his batting average, there was never a day when Larry Bowa couldn’t hit just the right Phillies nerve.

So how’s about that $184,000,000 team he is involved with this season as the right-hand man to Ryne Sandberg? And what is it doing fighting not for first place, but to avoid last?

‘It is scary,’ Bowa said Wednesday. ‘Because before the season, no one said, ‘Will they hit?’ or ‘Will they do this or that?’ It was, ‘Will they stay healthy?’ And so far they’ve been healthy. But you need two or three guys in the middle to drive in a lot of runs.’

The Phillies were shut out twice in three games last weekend, going hitless Sunday against Josh Beckett. They have sputtered with runners in scoring position, taken odd outfield routes to fly balls, given up too many late leads. With other Phillies teams, that would have been Bowa’s green light to snarl, to say something just to incite a scene. And never mind that he isn’t the manager. He’s still Larry Bowa. So why isn’t he strolling through the clubhouse, grumbling under his breath about the lack of production, begging anyone to respond just so he could complain even louder?

‘I don’t know,’ Bowa said. ‘If you see guys not playing hard or guys walking after balls, I think that is something that Ryno probably would address. But I don’t see that. I really don’t. I see guys out there busting their butt, and it’s just not happening for them in the games. When you see guys giving effort and it’s just not happening, it’s hard to say, ‘Hey, I am tired of watching this.’ But it’s not hard to say that if you don’t see the effort.

‘I can honestly say that these guys are here at 1:30, 2 o’clock. I hear them banging away in the cage. Guys who don’t care come in here at 3:30 or whatever the reporting time is. I have seen teams like that. But as we speak right now, I don’t see that from this team.’

So he’s seen enough early batting-cage activity and enough late film study. And he has seen enough baseball to know that effort will earn some kind of reward. But he knows, too, that it is already getting late for the 2014 Phillies, even if it’s not yet June.

‘I don’t judge on 100 at-bats,’ Bowa said. ‘But I think when you get to 200 at-bats, that gives you an idea of what your season is going to be like. And guys are close to 200 at-bats. So usually, you have a pretty good idea. You are talking a third of the way.’

Bowa played for some of the worst teams in Phillies history, and on some of the best. He played with multiple Hall of Fame caliber players, and managed a team that barely had a major-league starting pitcher, still finishing over .500.

Every clubhouse has its own character. The Phillies’ 2014 clubhouse, too often, seems to lack any personality at all.

‘To me, when you win, you have good chemistry,’ Bowa said. ‘You can’t have good chemistry when you lose every day. You win games, you create that chemistry.’

The Phillies won 73 games last season, costing Charlie Manuel a job. They are heading in that direction again, meaning either baseballs or their feelings are about to take a hit.

‘I think we have guys who can still do damage,’ Bowa said ‘I hope so. It’s not early. It’s not. It’s time for us. No question. I think it’s time.’

And from one never hesitant to spread some, it’s the truth.