Name Mickey Bowers | Role Baseball manager | |
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Allen LaGrant "Mickey" Bowers (born February 27, 1949, at Maxton, North Carolina) is a retired American professional baseball player, scout, coach and manager whose entire uniformed career took place in minor league baseball. An outfielder, Bowers threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 175 pounds (79 kg).
Bowers graduated from Mount Vernon High School (Alexandria, Virginia) and attended Northern Virginia College. He entered professional baseball in 1968 in the Philadelphia Phillies' organization and in his finest season, 1969, he batted .308 with 124 hits, 10 home runs and 73 runs batted in in 106 games played for the Spartanburg Phillies of the Class A Western Carolinas League. However, his career was highlighted by an incident in his first game as a professional in the Short Season-A Northern League. On July 4, 1968, Bowers, playing right field for the Huron Phillies, ran through an outfield fence while chasing a foul fly ball. He emerged from the hole in the fence unhurt — although he did not make the catch. He retired as an active player after the 1970 season and then served six years as a police officer in Washington, D.C., before returning to baseball as a member of the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau.
In 1977, Bowers became a coach in the Seattle Mariners' farm system. After three seasons (1980–82) as a coach with the Lynn Sailors of the Double-A Eastern League, Bowers managed the 1982 Sailors to an 82–57 mark and the North Division title. He was named Eastern League Manager of the Year in September 1982. The first African American to be named Manager of the Year in professional baseball. In October 1982, Frank Robinson was named Major League Manager of Year.
Bowers' players included future Major Leaguers Alvin Davis, Jim Presley and Harold Reynolds, Spike Owen, Brian Clark, and J.D. Gleathon . Seattle moved its Double-A affiliate the following year to the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern League. Bowers was replaced as skipper in midseason as the Lookouts finished below .500, despite contributions from future MLB stars Ivan Calderón, Darnell Coles, Mark Langston and Danny Tartabull.