Larry Gowell is mired in the middle of that timeless baseball debate, and I don’t mean tastes great versus less filling.
Raised in Auburn and groomed as a right-handed pitcher, Gowell was barely 19 years old when plucked as the primary selection of the fourth round, 61st overall, in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft during the Impossible Dream summer of 1967.
Oh, did we mention that life-changing phone call came from the Yankees?
No need to get your hatred up, Red Sox Nation. True, Gowell did spend six years in minor league pinstripes. Even sipped a cup of coffee in the Bronx before buying his one-way ticket to reality. But his loyalty to the (deep, cleansing sigh) 26-time world champions died before Bronson Arroyo was old enough to grow dreadlock-able hair and general manager Theo Epstein earned his first cavity from Topps bubble gum.
“I was happy the Red Sox won the World Series,” Gowell said Wednesday evening. “(Yankees owner) George Steinbrenner is not one of my favorite people. He’s trying to buy a pennant again, but it doesn’t work. Injuries happen. People don’t pan out.”
Gowell, 56, worked through the dinner hour as he spoke, keeping tabs on his kiosk in the Maine Mall. He and wife Sandy returned home last July after eight years in North Carolina and launched Foot-O-Pedics, a company that sells arch supports and other shoe inserts.
He was born at the wrong time. Today, a kid with Gowell’s rare combination of a rocket-launcher arm and business savvy might live off the interest from his signing bonus from now until kingdom come.
But the strapping salesman who still looks like he could mow ’em down in an over-30 league wouldn’t swap places with Maine-bred bonus baby Mark Rogers. Gowell is content to pitch stories about his four grandchildren and take a few good-natured swings from a safe distance.
Say, Larry, ever try steroids?
“Nobody was on anything like that when I played,” Gowell said. “The players look bloated. Guys are hitting more home runs than at any time in their career at age 40 and 41. It’s just not normal.”
Oh, c’mon, aren’t you just jealous of their bank accounts?
“It looks pretty good for them on the surface, but they’re going to pay a dear, dear price when they get to be 60. Yeah, you make all this money,” he said, “but what good’s the money going to do when you’re dead?”
Hey, speaking of money, is there anything good that can happen when a teenager is handed $5 million and the keys to the world?
“It’s too much money. I lived in Raleigh, so I’m familiar with Josh Hamilton (a former No. 1 overall draft pick of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays). Here’s a kid whose father gave up his career after the kid signed a huge contract. That’s stupid,” Gowell said. “Drugs dragged the kid right down. Now he could be all done with baseball and the money’s gone. He bought the father a $3 million house and the father can’t afford to pay the taxes.”
Ever the conversationalist, Gowell also is the answer to multiple baseball trivia questions.
He was the last American League pitcher to belt a base hit before the designated hitter arrived and gave purists one, big collective ulcer. It was a third-inning double off Jim Lonborg on October 4, 1972.
That offseason, Yankees GM Lee McPhail essentially told Gowell that his religious convictions made it bad business for the team to offer him a contract. Gowell was raised a Seventh-Day Adventist and would not pitch during his Sabbath, which left him out of any Friday night or Saturday afternoon games.
Again, timing is everything. Gowell’s now a Baptist.
Gowell played winter ball in Mexico. When no franchise took a bite, he retired at 25 with a 1.29 ERA and a career batting average of 1.000.
“It’s just as well that I got out when I did,” Gowell said. “You stick around seven or eight years and never make it to the majors, people say it’s a great experience, but what do you really get out of it? You’re 30 years old and starting over.”
Baseball’s draft is a notoriously inexact science, but 1967 yielded a bumper crop. Vida Blue, Dave Kingman, Jerry Reuss, Don Baylor, Davey Lopes, Al Hrabosky and Dusty Baker also came out that year. Years later, one scout told Gowell he was part of the most productive class in history.
He capped a golden decade for Maine. Portland-area pitchers Dick Joyce and John Cumberland also made it to The Show in the ’60s.
Cumberland still coaches. Gowell is amicably divorced from the game. He’ll settle for watching the Red Sox and Yankees pick up where they left off Sunday night on ESPN and playing armchair Theo.
“I don’t know about David Wells,” lamented Gowell. “He’s 41. He’s out of shape. The guy hasn’t looked very good.”
Yup, the Baseball Encyclopedia says he’s a Yankee, but there’s no mistaking that pessimism. Gowell’s one of us.
Kalle Oakes is a staff writer. His e-mail is koakes@sunjournal.com.
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