Larry Bowa Still Bonkers

Larry Bowa didn’t wait long to get thrown out of his first game of the season. The former Phillies shortstop and manager was ejected for being out of the coaches’ box — apparently a stupid new rule to fix a problem no one was having, usually more of a pro football tradition — and then went ballistic on umpire Ed Montague.

He even threw Gatorade all over the dugout afterward after the 40-second argument, showing his players what kind of composure it takes to succeed at the big league level. Video after the jump.

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Road To 10,000 Losses: Larry Bowa, Working Hard To Contribute To All 10,000 Phillies Losses

So, yes, in the paper today I wrote about the 10,000 Losses thing, basically focusing on the historical awfulness of the Phillies. Lest you think I’ve possible exhausted all the bad stories about the Phillies on this blog, ha ha ha. There’s enough awfulness about the Phillies to fill three Wikipedias. My story begins with an 11-year-old boy the Phillies had arrested 80 years ago because he pocketed a foul ball hit into the stands. I’d like to say he’ll be sharing a room with the streaker from earlier this year in Phillies Heaven.

Anyway, we ran a sidebar of local bloggers who wrote their favorite “awful” Phillies stories, and some of them weren’t able to make it into the paper because of length or my Gmail account sucking. As such, here is the amazing account of A.J. Daulerio of Phillymag (and Deadspin) fame at a game following Sept. 11.

I believe it was September 17, 2001 and the Phillies, like the rest of Major League Baseball, had supposedly put together a tribute to recognizing every one lost after 9/11. Most other teams coming back after the week-long break had tasteful tributes with military personnel, flag waving, and heartfelt national anthems sung by either established stars or, at the very minimum, people who could actually sing. The Phillies organization decided to stick with the same entertainment that they had scheduled for that evening prior to the attacks: a middle-aged female barbershop quartet-like group, frumpily decked out in sweatshirts and turtlenecks. After the ladies’ wince-worthy renditions of God Bless America and the National Anthem — which they breezed through in, oh, maybe two minutes — most of the crowd expecting to be uplifted and inspired, appeared to have actually been made to feel worse. Best part? It was one of the first nationally televised games after the attacks. Goosebumps?

Wasn’t this the game where they showed Larry Bowa crying during the National Anthem? Maybe he was actually crying because it was so bad.

After the jump, another long story involving Larry Bowa and, of course, Minor Threat.

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