Larry Bowa: I Still Hate to Lose

Rating:
Summary: An attempt to justify Bowa as the manager of the Phillies
Review: I am still trying to make up my mind if "Larry Bowa: 'I Still Hate to Lose'" was written either a season too early or a season too late. If this book by Barry M. Bloom, the sportswriter who wrote the book with lengthy quotations from Bowa throughout the book," had come out a year earlier it would have been after Bowa had won National League Manager of the Year after guiding the Philadelphia Phillies to a respectable second place finish in the NL East. With the Atlanta Braves being so decimated by free agency that a thirteenth straight title seems an impossibility and the World Champion Florida Marlins having to lose several key players as well, the Phillies are favorite to win the title, which would mean a book like this next year could celebrate their success. However, given the team's collapse at the end of last year, it is hard not to have second thoughts about their prospects (signing Kevin Millwood for another season, picking up Eric Milton, and getting Billy Wagner to be the stopper are both good signs). Then again, the Phillies are getting off to a rough start, the Marlins are hot, and already there are calls for Bowa to get axed.

When I picked up this book I was expecting it to be a biography of Bowa, who enjoyed a fiery reputation as a hard playing shortstop for the Phillies and Cubs in a relatively successful career. Bowa was never going to be considered for the Hall of Fame, but he was often an All-Star and in his era when you ticked off the five best shortstops on the fingers of one hand he was going to be there most of the time. Instead, "I Still Hate to Lose" is really more of an apologia. I have seen presidential candidates pick running mates with less justification that is provided in this book for Bowa being signed to manage the Phillies. The problem is that Bloom spends so much time explaining how Bowa's problems with particular players (e.g., Stanley Jefferson, Chris Brown, Scott Rolen) are not his fault, that it is hard to remember those players who speak highly of him as a manager (e.g., John Kruk). The net result is that the failures seem to outweigh the successes, which is not exactly how you want to make your case here.

The problem is that if this book is supposed to convince me that Bowa is a first-rate major league manager it is not providing the evidence that would prove the point for me beyond the team's record. You would think there would be stories of key moves in a game, some evidence of Bowa's skill at baseball strategy, but they are not forthcoming. Instead we get stories about Bowa not throwing temper tantrums and people providing votes of confidence. The same thing applies when Bowa is described as the best third base coach in baseball; there is not one specific suggestion as to what that involves. We are constantly being told things in this book about Bowa that I would rather be shown, especially if I am to be convinced he is one of the best at his chosen vocation. I stopped counting the number of times that Bowa looked back on his past and decided he should have done things differently because I would rather have the argument made in positive terms instead of these double negatives.

There are four quotations on the dedication page, including A. Bartlett Giamatti's famous poem "The Green Fields of the Mind" and Chico Marx's baseball bit from "Duck Soup," but the most relevant one is from Bernard Malamud's novel "The Natural": "We have two lives-the one we learn with and the life we live after that." In the context of this book the life that Bowa learned with did not end until he was hired to be the manager of the Phillies, with the learning coming as a player, as a minor league manager, as the manager of the San Diego Padres, and as a third-base coach for the Phillies, Angels and Mariners. This book would have worked a lot better if the focus was on the lessons, provided, of course, that the proof was actually forthcoming to prove each point. But I have the feeling that the only way that could happen is if the book was written first person from Bowa's perspetive, because I think if Bowa kept talking he would show why he is a good baseball manager.

It is helpful to keep in mind that Bloom is a sportswriter, because there is definitely a sense at times throughout this book that the chapters are more like sports articles (so I was not surprised to see that Chapter 10 was based on an actual article in the "San Diego Tribune"). There are a couple of points that pop up more than once in the book. For those who pick up this book and want more of a biography about Bowa, apparently you need to go check out the book that Bloom wrote about him back in the San Diego days, "Bleep! Larry Bowa Manager." Maybe that is why the look at Bowa's early life and playing career is so uneven. Fans of Bowa as a player are going to be rather disappointed by this book, and even those who support him as Phillies manager are going to be uneasy after reading this book. I should have had a higher opinion of Bowa at the end of this book than I had before I picked it up and, to my surprise, that is not the case here.

Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: I was born and raised in Philly, and make no mistake, Larry Bowa is Phillies baseball. The book focuses on his time in Philadelphia as a player and now as a manager, so it covers multiple eras. There are some great photos included too. The author, Barry Bloom, writes a really neat Preface, where he talks about about his relationship with Bowa, and how he (Bloom) was the first person to let Bowa know that he was going to be fired as Padres manager in 1988. (At the time, Bloom was writing for the San Diego Union-Tribune.) Really interesting stuff!