Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170103
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"This is the first spring in 17 years I haven't been on the road," said Bowles, the Salem Buccaneers' owner. "I'm more relaxed than I've been in a long time. I'm just a spectator now, but I know I'll never be able to just sit and watch a game without evaluating."
After 16 years as a professional baseball scout, Bowles resigned his full-time position with Montreal after last season. The Expos called back during the winter, just to make sure Bowles was firm in his decision. Since then, he has been contacted by eight clubs, including one in the past two weeks.
"I'm not going to do anything this year, unless somebody asks me to work the Carolina League for them," Bowles said. "I don't think I'll even do that. After I see how it goes this year, I might go back to scouting part-time next year. I don't think I'll be going back full-time, unless I need the money to buy groceries."
It is doubtful that will happen. Bowles lives on Smith Mountain Lake in Franklin County. He has invested wisely. He has 58 head of cattle on a 340-acre farm in Franklin County. He owns an apartment complex and is a partner in Franklin County's cable TV system and other properties. Then, there are the Buccaneers.
Bowles purchased the Salem franchise in the fall of 1986 for a reported $180,000. The Class A club's estimated worth is between $1.5 million and $2 million now.
Bowles hasn't soured on scouting or baseball.
"I'm still addicted to the game," he said as an opening-night record crowd filed in to Municipal Field on Thursday, his sixth opener as the Bucs' owner. He says he just wanted to spend more time close to home, with family and friends.
"There would be times when I'd be sitting alone in front of a TV in a hotel room in a small town in Kentucky or Tennessee on a Saturday night, and I'd be thinking about what my family would be doing now, what other people would be doing," Bowles said. "I'd be driving to Nashville or Louisville and I'd pass farms or people with their fishing boats on lakes. I'd think, `That could be me.' "
Bowles started in scouting with the Major League Scouting Bureau, where he worked five years. He spent the next five seasons with Pittsburgh before moving to the Expos' staff. In recent years, he has scouted major-league spring training for Montreal, then checked high school and college prospects in six states before getting into minor-league scouting. He has followed that with winter-league work in Puerto Rico.
A year ago, Montreal sent Bowles a 1991 contract, about six months earlier than is normal. That told him the Expos appreciated his work. It also caused him to ponder whether he wanted to continue to treat scouting as a livelihood when it wasn't supposed to be. He said he has seen too many other "baseball people" who regard a day off as a day wasted.
"It was a big, big step for me to get out of scouting," said Bowles, whose evaluations played no small part in Montreal's acquisition of several Pittsburgh prospects - Moises Alou, Willie Greene, Scott Ruskin, Bill Sampen - in recent years.
Bowles never has been a hands-on owner with the Buccaneers, although he has been involved in approving some decisions by his club vice president, Sam Lazzaro. When Bowles left scouting, some thought that meant he would be more involved in the Bucs' day-to-day operations. He hasn't, he said, and he won't.
"I'd be foolish to get in Sam's hair," Bowles said. "If I got involved, I might screw this place up."
Bowles is comfortable with his franchise's ties with Pittsburgh's revamped farm organization and the return of manager Stan Cliburn. He has no intention of selling the Bucs, he said, although he still is seething about the minor leagues' losses in the new Player Development Contract with the major leagues.
"I'm disappointed, but we'll survive," Bowles said. "Major-league people always seem to have a hard time when it comes to contract time, whether it's with the players' union or the umpires. It always seems they just about have to strike to get things going.
"Well, we, and I mean the National Association [the minor leagues] weren't strong enough or unified enough to make the majors blink. We hurt ourselves by having some owners boast about the value of franchises. It could have all been handled in better fashion, and when it came down to the end, it was hammered out by lawyers, not baseball people."
Bowles said the new Player Development Contract will cost the Bucs at least $25,000 this season. One of the clauses removes the television "consideration fee" that clubs received from the majors for airing games into minors' markets. Each Class A club received $11,000 last year. Class A clubs pay all players' travel expenses now, and each club also pays a percentage of its ticket revenue to the majors.
by CNB