Kellogg's let it be known immediately that Bowa didn't have a great year in 1979. Here is what they started the paragraph stating - "both Larry and his Phillies' employers are looking for him to rebound at the plate this year". His great fielding was mentioned as he achieved many defensive records.
Let's check out his 1979 season compared to others.
In 1978 he was third in the MVP voting behind Dave Parker and Steve Garvey. Only Parker (21 votes) and Bowa (3) received first-place votes. He was an all-star, won a Gold Glove and hit .294. He added 27 steals.
In 1979 he dropped to a .241 average and all of his other stats were off from 1978. He was an all-star, but he didn't win any Gold Gloves after 1978. Dave Concepcion won the award in 1979 and Ozzie Smith took it the next 13 years.
Bowa didn't make any all-star games either after 1979.
I was surprised to see how high Bowa ranked in some defensive categories. As a shortstop, he is 9th in career assists, 11th in double plays and 16th in assists. I was even more surprised to see that only six shortstops have played more games than Bowa.
6. Jimmy Rollins - I would never have guessed him
5. Cal Ripken
4. Ozzie Smith
3. Luis Aparicio
2. Derek Jeter
1. Omar Vizquel
I would have guessed Honus Wagner who played 21 seasons. Nope. He didn't play shortstop at all during his first four seasons and he played almost 900 games at other positions. Wagner died on Bowa's 10th birthday.
The lockdown has allowed me to dig through lots of my cards. Due to that, My Kellogg's sets are blocked from easy access. I still wanted to do the post.
Kinda surprised they would make a card of Bowa considering he struggled the previous season and they went out of their way to point that out. Why not just replace him with Garry Maddox or Bake McBride. Both of these guys had solid seasons at the plate in '79.
ReplyDeletegreat observation. I think they decided too early who to produce the next season.
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