Baseball, Sports

Giant Dirtbag living the Major League life

LOS ANGELES — John Bowker and the San Francisco Giants were in town to play the Los Angeles Dodgers and renew the rivalry in late September. The Giants were playing the role of spoiler as the Major League Baseball regular season came to a close.

“I grew up a Giants fan,” Bowker said. “This rivalry is fun for the fans, and we know the Dodgers are fighting for a playoff spot so we [were] trying to keep them out.”

Bowker came into the locker room while a few of his teammates were preparing for an afternoon game and third basemen Pablo Sandoval greeted him with a soft chant of “MVP, MVP, MVP.” Meanwhile, catcher Steve Holm gave him a hard time for not making it to breakfast with him and a few other players that were suppose to meet up at the hotel.

Bowker talked about his first day in the Major Leagues, which just happened to be the day he would hit his first Major League home run.

With a two-strike count, Bowker hit it off St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Todd Wellemeyer at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The blast was a three-run home run to right center that would bounce of the boardwalk and into the water of McCovey Cove.

“I remember everything about that home run,” Bowker said. “The whole thing was very surreal.”

Since reaching the Major League level, Bowker has been asked to play first base — a position he had never played before either in college, or at the minor league level.

“I learned something new every day and got a lot of reps,” said Bowker, who had always been an outfielder.

In his first year with the Giants, Bowker has been a self-proclaimed quiet guy who works hard and keeps his mouth shut.

“He did a great job of learning his new position on the fly,” Holm said. “He works hard; he just needs more at-bats and reps at this level.”

Bowker has had a bit of a rollercoaster season. He was called up early in the season and played well. He later struggled a bit and was sent down to the minors for a few weeks before the roster expansion in September. His main role when he was recalled was as a pinch-hitter. In 111 games, Bowker hit .255 with 10 homers and 43 RBIs.

While in high school, Bowker was not highly recruited by many schools but was looking for an opportunity. Scout Troy Buckley recruited Bowker out of Rio Americano High School in Sacramento. He was as a tri-sport athlete who played football and basketball along with baseball.

“He had very fast bat speed and a nice swing,” Long Beach State head coach Mike Weathers said. “He was not a good defender as a freshman, but he was a hard worker and, by the time he was drafted, was a very serviceable outfielder.”

Bowker played for Long Beach State from 2002-04 before being drafted after his junior year by the Giants in the third round. While with the Dirtbags, he played on teams that were filled with future Major League talent like Troy Tulowitzki and Jered Weaver, just to name a few.

In 2004, the Dirtbags went all the way to the Super Regionals and were close to making it to Omaha before losing to Arizona.

“I remember beating Stanford at Blair Field,” Bowker said, talking about some of the best times he had at LBSU. Bowker said Stanford had been a team that gave the Dirtbags a lot of trouble the previous year.

“That was probably the best Omaha-caliber team I have coached,” Weathers said. “John was a big part of that and helped us out a lot.”

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    you’re the best i love you!

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