Larry Gowell was not one of those Yankees that was beloved at Old Timers’ Days or who was asked about his years in pinstripes. No, Gowell, played just two games for the Yankees back in the 1970s.
Still, he left his mark on baseball and the franchise. Gowell died Monday of a heart attack, doing what he enjoyed — out on the golf course with friends enjoying a beautiful day — according to his son Chad Holland.
Gowell may be remembered by most who did not know him as the answer to a baseball trivia question that is relevant today as the National League is on the cusp of integrating the designated hitter for a possible coronavirus pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
On Oct. 4, 1972, Gowell ripped a double off Brewer pitcher Jim Lonborg. It was the last regular-season hit by an American League pitcher before the designated hitter was implemented the next season.
“I know when I was standing in the on-deck circle and they called my name, I was super determined to give it all,” Gowell recalled during an interview with a Yankees blog on Fansided.com. “I had to not make a fool out of myself and swing hard three times if the ball is around the plate.”
That ball has been encased at the Baseball Hall of Fame since November 1996 — one of two items of Gowell’s that is housed in Cooperstown.
His son said there was an added twist to the trivia question. Gowell, a fourth-round pick of the Yankees in 1967, was a roommate of Ron Blumberg — who was the first designated hitter to ever record a hit the next season.
Gowell’s career was bittersweet, according to former Yankees PR director Marty Appel. Under different circumstances, Gowell would have had a much longer career.
“He had major league stuff,” Appel said. “But he was a Seventh Day Adventist and couldn’t pitch on Friday and Saturday. Maybe if you are Greg Maddux, a team will work around that.
“The Yankees tried to trade him to a team where that would work, but it couldn’t work there.”
That October 1974 game was the last of Gowell’s career. Holland remembers him talking about the pressure because of his religion and ironically, he left the Seventh Day Adventists after he left baseball.
“He turned Baptist,” Holland said. “He probably could have had a 10-15 year career if he’d done that earlier. But he was very proud of what he did in baseball. Proud to have been a Yankee.”
Holland was not born until two years after Gowell retired, but he loved his father’s stories about his catcher —- Thurman Munson — and the pictures of his dad at spring training with Mickey Mantle.
“He always talked about the Yankees being a first-class organization,” Holland said. “But he was from Maine, a New Englander. He’d grown up a Red Sox fan, so we’d mostly go to games at Fenway. He sang the national anthem there once.”
His son remembers him as a great singer who along with his brother Rich, recorded a CD called ‘Playin’ Baseball.’ Larry sang backup vocals for the cover of baseball-themes songs. The CD is now in Cooperstown.
Perhaps the most lasting legacy he leaves in baseball, however, is the passion and love for the game that he passed down to Chad, who played independent league ball, and which he was watching blossom in his grandson Tucker.
“Oh how he loved to talk about Tucker,” Appell said.
A left-handed pitcher in the class of 2023 at the Burlington School, where his father Chad now coaches, was close to his grandfather. Gowell would make the trip from his native Maine — he was just one of 78 major leaguers born in Maine — to North Carolina to watch his grandson pitch.
“He was so excited about Tucker,” Chad said. “He’d come down to watch him pitch. They’d talk about baseball. He loved that they shared that.
“Baseball is in our blood.”
