Washington Nationals: Former Pitcher Micah Bowie Fighting for His Life
Former Washington Nationals pitcher Micah Bowie spent the better part of 15 years fighting for roster spots on several big league teams. Now, he fights for his life.
Former Washington Nationals RP Micah Bowie‘s big league career resembles that of the Greek mythology of Sisyphus. After cheating death multiple times, Sisyphus was condemned for eternity to repeatedly roll a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down.
Similarly, things never came easily for Micah Bowie. Upon being drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 8th round of the 1993 MLB June Amateur Draft, Bowie spent the next six years working his way up to the big leagues.
After finally being called up for his first big league game for the World Series bound Braves in July of 1999, Bowie was promptly traded to the last place Chicago Cubs where he would remain for the rest of the season.
Just as quickly as Bowie’s big league career began, however, it ended. Later that winter, the Cubs released Micah Bowie and the Oakland Athletics decided to give him a shot.
*Sisyphus rolls the boulder up the hill, only for it to roll back down again.*
While with the A’s organization, Bowie would spend the next three years in the minors, working his way up the ranks, this time as a RP.
He never quite made it back to the big leagues with the A’s, however, and in 2003 he would again be released. This time, it was the Arizona Diamondbacks who decided to give him a shot, but after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Bowie missed the rest of 2004.
*Sisyphus rolls the boulder up the hill, only for it to roll back down again.*
This should have been rock bottom for the journeyman pitcher, but instead Bowie would sign with the Washington Nationals just in time for the 2005 season.
While he spent all of 2005 in the minors, in 2006 he was called up to big leagues once more. This time, Bowie showed flashes of consistency and became one of manager Frank Robinson‘s go-to guys out of the pen for the rest of the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
In that span, Bowie put up a serviceable 3.74 ERA in 77 IP, the most IP with any single team in his MLB career.
In his last month with the Washington Nationals, however, Bowie suffered a season ending injury. In a piece by Thom Loverro of the Washington Times, Bowie is quoted saying:
I was injured and missed the last month of the season, and when I came in to talk to (manager Frank Robinson), he said, ‘You ride a horse as hard as you can, then you shoot them. We can’t shoot you.’ We laughed, but he did like to ride the hot hand in the bullpen till you couldn’t go anymore.”
Unfortunately for Bowie, he couldn’t go anymore for the Washington Nationals.
That offseason, Bowie was released by the Washington Nationals and signed by the Colorado Rockies, where after 8 IP, he’d walk off a major league mound for that last time in his career.
*Sisyphus rolls the boulder up the hill, only for it to roll back down again.*
Micah Bowie’s injury rattled career drove him to help young players not make the same mistakes he did. So much so that upon retiring from baseball, he opened up a baseball academy with the goal to “fix kids,” according to piece published in My San Antonio.
“I’ve gone through most every injury that you can go through as a pitcher,” said Bowie. “I know how to find out how to fix it, and how to come back and pitch on the major-league level.
Bowie was good in his new role as an advisor to kids. In fact, in that same My San Antonio piece, New Braunfels High School graduate Will Martin, who had lost several months of pitching due to pain in his arm, praises Bowie by saying, “If I didn’t have Micah, I would’ve torn my arm apart.”
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Maybe this was the pinnacle of Micah Bowie’s career. After spending year after year with team after team carrying the boulder up the hill only for it to roll back down again, here Micah was able to tap into his history in order to help others.
Unfortunately, this time when the boulder came rolling back down the hill, it might’ve be too heavy for Micah to roll it back up the hill again.
10 years after hanging up his cleats for good, Bowie’s main focus in life is to continue breathing.
In piece published on January 17, Bowie told the Washington Times, “Everything around my family’s life on a daily basis is about me breathing, just trying to keep my breathing for now”.
That’s because after undergoing back surgery in 2016, Bowie experienced complications that wound up damaging his lungs.
“Now that my lungs are destroyed, about 50 percent of my lungs receive air,” Bowie told the Washington Times. “I have about a 9% perfusion rate, which means about 9 percent of my lungs are working.”
This has left Bowie and his family in a dire financial situation. Micah’s medical bills are so astronomical that he’s qualified for government disability payments, but the payments aren’t enough.
As a last resort, Bowie turned to the MLBPA for help, but was denied benefits because he didn’t have the four full years of time to automatically get benefits. “I am 20 days short,” Micah told the Washington Times.
20 days.
If that’s not enough, upon appealing the MLBPA’s decision, Bowie appealed, but was quickly denied. “I called the union,” Micah told the Washington Times,
“I talked to a member of the pension committee, one of the guys who had declined my benefits, and he informed me he didn’t even read my case. He just read from the attorney for the pension plan that they could deny it, so without looking at my stuff they just denied me.
So, it seems that unless some sort of miracle happens, Micah Bowie has rolled the boulder up the hill for the last time.
It doesn’t have to be that way, however. A team can sign Bowie to give him the time he needs to qualify for the benefits he requires. Perhaps the Braves… the Cubs… the A’s… the Nationals… the Rockies?
Heck, MLB players averaged over $4M in 2018. Any of them can step in and help a former member of their union.
Next. Rendon looking for Altuve money. dark
If all else fails, however, we can do something. Donations for Micah can be made at https://www.ballplayersassociation.org/donate-now or call (480) 404-9339 or checks may be mailed to:
APBPA 23623 N Scottsdale Rd # 290 Scottsdale, AZ 85255.