Bob Bowman

The one hit wonder

Bob Bowman

If there were a museum for baseball one hit wonders, Bob Bowman would have his face on the front door.

Bowman had an incredible season as a pitcher for the Cardinals in 1939. His career then fell apart, and he never got back to where he was.

I mean, just check out his pitching stats:

Now, Bowman was famous for hitting Joe Medwick with a pitch in June 1940, a pitch that resulted in a criminal investigation and nearly cost Medwick his life. But that’s a story for another post.

No, the interesting thing about Bowman is that his amazing 1939 season attracted quite a bit of media attention. And you can see why, obviously. It’s not every day you get a rookie who manages a 2.60 ERA in his first season, and, from the modern statistic perspective, that 5.2 WAR is really impressive.

But perhaps the most interesting part about Bowman was the fact that he managed to pitch his way out of the West Virginia coal mines:

Bowman was a hillbilly from back in the days when hillbillies were somewhat celebrated in the popular media, and so there’s no surprise that this article quotes him verbatim:

Anyway, Bowman must have been pretty tough, especially if stories like this are actually true:

Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. I’m pretty sure Medwick got a pretty quick education about just how tough Bowman was.

But this part here is probably the best clip from the entire article:

Above from The Sporting News, December 21, 1939, page 3

Bowman actually didn’t have to go back to the mines full time after his major league career ended in 1942. The Chicago Cubs tried to sell him to Pacific Coast League teams twice, but Bowman refused to go, hoping to work his way back into the majors. He eventually wound up in the American Association and the International League, where he pitched during the war. He finally left baseball in the summer of 1948 after managing a bit in the low minors.

But, hey, maybe that assurance of a lifetime job in the mines was worth it after all.