Philly fanatic: intense and emotional, Larry Bowa needs to keep his cool—and the focus on winning, not himself—if the well-fortified Phillies are to live up to red-hot expectations

Sporting News, The, March 22, 2004 by Randy Miller

Larry Bowa was being Larry Bowa. The Phillies' manager, intense as ever at age 58, didn't make it through a week's worth of Grapefruit League games without feeling the need to blow off some steam. And so he did. Although no clubhouse food tables at the Phillies' spring training complex in Clearwater, Fla., were overturned and no players were given the Bob Knight treatment, Bowa was angry enough to phone a Philadelphia all-sports radio station, go on the air and portray a side of himself that Phillies fans have loved for more than three decades. On this day, Bowa felt the need to defend himself by hammering away at Philadelphia print journalists.

A week later, Bowa was back on the same station to keep his Us-vs.-Them theme going, this time defending Phillies general manager Ed Wade, who had been torched that day in print by longtime Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin for going bonkers on Phillies beat writers the previous day. Bowa really went off this time, calling Conlin a senile old man who is stirring up trouble because he's bored with his life. "He threw in that I'm so fat I can't fit through the doorway," says Conlin, who was on the beat during Bowa's entire run as star shortstop with the Phillies from 1970 through 1981. "I have a senile, old-man's premonition, though, that if I ever get skinny enough to fit through the door to the office of the Phillies manager, a different guy will be sitting in the chair. Larry Bowa has been rubbing people the wrong way since his first Phillies spring training camp in 1967 and shows no sign of wearing out. He's the Energizer Bunny of abrasiveness."

There also was the spring day Bowa joked that his exploits with writers ought to be chronicled on the big screen in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the Sequel. So who's going to play Bowa? "Nicholson," he said with authority and a smile. Auditions may be held at a theater near you for the parts of Scott Rolen and Tyler Houston, former Phillies who have sparred with Bowa since he returned to the Phillies as manager in 2001.

Are you wondering what in the name of Hal McRae Flying Tape Recorders is going on during a spring in which the Phillies simply hoped for smooth sailing?

"There's a lot of criticism that's not warranted, not warranted at all," Bowa says.

Actually, as far as the Phillies are concerned, the only real news in the first half of spring training was injuries to three important players. Reigning National League home run king Jim Thome fractured his right middle finger and was to miss three weeks; new star closer Billy Wagner suffered an inflamed left middle finger and didn't throw off the mound for three weeks, and No. 1 starter Kevin Millwood bruised his right shoulder in a fielding drill and missed a turn.

Despite being moody and sometimes short with the media, Bowa has been relaxed around his team this spring. The manager showed up for work one day wearing baggy hip-hop clothes purchased by shortstop Jimmy Rollins, and Bowa has been seen eating lunch with players in the Clubhouse. Around his team, he shows little sign of feeling extra pressure to win now because, as he puts it, his expectation for every season--no matter the talent--is to win the World Series.

"Larry's been great this spring," two-time All-Star catcher Mike Lieberthal says. "I know about his personality, but we have veteran players and leadership. Once you do get used to him, you know how he is. Some players are affected by it, some players aren't. Even Bowa says it's our team and we're the ones who have control of the situation."

By the April 5 season opener in Pittsburgh, all of the club's wounded big guns are expected to be ready.

The Phillies, after many years of bad baseball before contending for a postseason berth in 2001 and 2003 under Bowa, are a popular choice to unseat the downsized Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins as beasts of the N.L. East.

While many other franchises have serious payroll issues, the Phillies are conducting business as if they've become a miniature version of the Yankees after years of having what seemed to be a small-revenue budget. With beautiful $346 million Citizens Bank Park opening its gates in south Philly next month, the Phillies have been loading up the past two winters. They added third baseman David Bell, Thome and Millwood after the 2002 season, then took on pitchers Eric Milton, Tim Worrell, Roberto Hernandez and Wagner this winter. The Phillies now have a solid starting eight, four one-time All-Stars (Millwood, Milton, Randy Wolf and Vicente Padilla) in one of baseball's few five-deep starting rotations and a very good back end of the bullpen.

Yet here's the question that Bowa and the Phillies keep hearing, one they're tired of hearing: Can the manager control his emotions in a summer in which the Phillies are supposed to get to the postseason for the first time in 11 years?

Ask Bowa that question and you're sure to set him off because, believe it or not, major blowups really haven't been an issue during his mildly successful run as Phillies manager, which has included two winning seasons in three years and a 252-233 overall mark since taking over a ballclub that previously had reeled off seven consecutive losing records under managers Jim Fregosi and Terry Francona.