Currently coaching third for the Yankees, Larry Bowa is profiled by the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner.
Larry Bowa hates the word fiery. It brands him as crazy and irrational, he says, before people even get to know him.
“Every time I get on a show, like a radio show, it’s, ‘Well, today we have the fiery Larry Bowa,’ ” said Bowa, the Yankees’ new third-base coach, before a recent exhibition game. He was not smiling.
“Why not use the word intense?” he said. “Or, ‘a guy that likes to win’? But it’s got to be fiery, I guess, because it’s a better adjective. I don’t know. That’s never going to go away. No matter what I do, that’s not going to change.”
Bowa does not apologize for how he is. In the Yankees’ universe, he ranks with George Steinbrenner and Derek Jeter as the people most likely to seethe after a loss. When Manager Joe Torre was asked about Bowa a few days ago, these were his first words: “He’s a fiery guy.”
The real problem is that Larry Bowa is crazy and irrational.
Larry “hates to lose” more than “likes to win” and panic-managed as such during his tenure with the Phillies. The “fiery” euphemism is a lot nicer to Bowa than John Kruks “little psychopath” or Jimmy Rollins’ “angry midget”.
Bottom line is Larry Bowa is a winner….and the Yanks are lucky to have him…..enough said.