Larry Bowa was in the Phillies organization from 1965 to 1982. At that point he was traded to the Cubs for their shortstop Ivan DeJesus. The Cubs also received Ryne Sandberg in the deal.
Bowa was a big part of the Cubs 1984 team that managed to self-destruct in the playoffs. It sure was a fun team to watch. This was a few years before lights existed at Wrigley Field and before the 3:05 pm starts became common.
My summer job was tied to the schedule. If the Cubs were home we worked hard until 1:20 pm and then spent lots of time watching the game until work ended at 4:00 pm. If the Cubs were off or on the road lunch time was used to eat and probably spend some time in the gym. Either way, summer work was never dreaded.
One of my favorite things about baseball-reference.com is the Similarity Scores. For each player it compares him to other players. For Bowa he is considered to be most similar as a batter to long-time Cub Don Kessinger (Baseball-Reference.com). I like that because I think Bowa was always rated well and Kessinger seemed a bit under-appreciated.
Let's see how their stats compare. Both played 16 years.
Batting average - Bowa .260 - Kessinger .252
Homers - Bowa 15 - Kessinger 14
RBIs - Bowa 525 - Kessinger 527
2B - Bowa 262 - Kessinger 254
3B - Bowa 99 - Kessinger 80
OPS - Bowa 626 - Kessinger 620
I can see why the Baseball-Reference.com algorithm rates them as extremely similar. Nice work on their part.
Both Bowa and Kessinger ended up being managers too.
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