Micah Bowie

Micah Bowie didn’t have to travel all the way to Iowa to find his Field of Dreams.

No, it was was right up the road.

The left-handed pitcher rom Humble worked in six organizations from the time he broke into the minors in 1994 until he made his last appearance in 2008. He started with the Braves and worked for the Cubs, Athletics, Nationals, Rockies and Astros, and was, he says with a grin, released when he had good years, released when he had bad years, released when he was hurt and released when he was healthy.

He appeared in 88 games in the big leagues over the course of six seasons — time he earned by spending parts of 14 summers in the minors, in outposts from Danville, Va., to Columbus, Ohio, to Round Rock. Oh yes, and Iowa City, Iowa.

Through most of those years, he had a plan for life after professional baseball. He wanted to teach the game to kids, passing along the best of what he had learned along the way.

“I have a PhD in doing things the wrong way,” jokes the guy with a surgically repaired left elbow, among other injuries.

So today, he’s working with kids at doing things right. He had a teacher’s nature — he’s not at all the stereotypical flaky left-hander — and he turned down a number of offers to work out a deal with an old friend, Earl Studdard, who owns North Carolina Furniture Direct in San Marcos.
What has been dubbed the North Carolina Furniture Direct Farm Club — an appropriate name for 100 acres of what not long ago was pasture — eventually will have 12 game fields and 12 practice fields, plunked down in the middle of a triangle formed by New Braunfels, San Marcos and Seguin. The Bowie Baseball Academy is housed in a 6,000-square-foot indoor facility near the front gate, and there’s work well under way on a variety of fronts.
Between the expansive grounds — which Bowie says will be the biggest baseball facility in the region — his extensive connections in the baseball world and the ideal location, the chances are pretty good that the idea will take off.
It certainly will keep him closer to home. After all that time in baseball, he shouldn’t have to be on the road all the time, after all.
Bowie Baseball Academy
Micah Bowie’s major-league stats
Micah Bowie’s minor-league stats, which include a no-hitter for Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League in 2001.