Larry Bowa cringes as he watches ball after ball soar out of FirstEnergy Stadium during batting practice.
It sure wasn’t like that when he played for the Reading Phillies in 1968.
The cozy fences the Fightin Phils take aim at it these days were considerably deeper back in the day. The light poles in center and right field were once in play, and the ball didn’t carry out of the park nearly as well as it has in recent decades, since outfield additions to the park have enclosed it.
“It was definitely a pitcher’s park,” the 72-year-old Bowa recalls 50 years after he and the R-Phils won their first Eastern League championship. “They told us when we came into this league, there’s not gonna be a lot of hits. You just have to (try to) keep your head above water. It was a tough league.”
The 22-year-old Bowa batted .242, his lowest mark during the minor league portion of his career. That was actually good by league standards.
The league average was .219, and for the only time in the Eastern League’s long history, not a single qualifying batter finished at .300.
Tony Torchia of Pittsfield won the title at .294; Pittsfield, the Red Sox affiliate, was the league’s top-hitting team at .233.
“It was a pitcher’s league,” said Bowa. “It seemed like every pitcher we faced, you went, ‘Oh, my God.’ “
Future big leaguers Gene Garber, Bruce Dal Canton and Steve Kline dominated; Silvano Quezada of York led the league with a 1.34 ERA.
The R-Phils had plenty of good arms, too; that’s why they finished 81-59, then beat Pittsfield, the regular season champ, 3-1 in a best-of-five championship series.
Gene Rounsaville went 14-5 with a 1.76 ERA to lead Reading’s staff; he shared the league lead in wins and pitched six of the club’s 21 shutouts.
Pat Bayless, just 20, went 12-8 with a 1.76 ERA.
Jack Nutter, who pitched a four-hitter in a 4-1 Game 3 victory over Pittsfield, had a losing record (10-12) for the season, despite a 2.37 ERA.
Luis Peraza went 13-3 out of the bullpen with a 1.99 ERA.
The R-Phils had a league-best 2.17 ERA and allowed just 43 homers in 140 games.
They limited Pittsfield to two runs or less in three of the four games in the championship series.
In the series-clincher, a 3-2, 11-inning victory at Municipal Stadium, Bill Wolfe went the distance.
First baseman Ron Allen and veteran outfielders Howie Bedell and Joe Christopher were the club’s top hitters, but Bowa and backup catcher Stump Merrill ended up the heroes in the series-clincher.
Merrill, a future New York Yankees manager, reached on a two-out single in the 11th to set the stage.
Bowa followed with a liner into the left-center gap. When Pittsfield’s center fielder slipped chasing it down, Reading manager Frank Lucceshi waved Merrill home.
Merrill, who coached college football in the offseason and who was built like a tackle, chugged home.
The throw beat him but skipped wildly away from the catcher.
The Reading Phillies, in just their second season of existence, were champs.
“It had to be (hit) way out there for Stump to score,” Bowa joked a half-century later.
Bowa was one of 13 players on the ’68 club to reach the majors, though he turned out to be the lone All-Star.
Second baseman Denny Doyle had a long career, but most of the others had short stays or were past their prime by 1968. Lucchesi’s regular lineup featured three 30-year-olds, something you no longer see at Double-A.
Bowa never thought he’d get a shot at pro ball, much less playing 16 years and managing in the major leagues.
He never played a game of high school ball after being cut three straight years.
He persevered by playing to his strengths – fielding, running and throwing. He learned to switch-hit and put the ball in play and eventually squeezed out 2,191 big league hits.
“I just remember being happy because I was at Double-A,” Bowa said of 1968. “I was getting closer. I never thought I would make the big leagues. I knew the odds of me making it would be slim.
“If they had sabermetrics, I wouldn’t have played (in the majors); I wouldn’t have gotten an opportunity.”
Contact Mike Drago: 610-371-5061 or mdrago@readingeagle.com.
