Ben Bowden has been kicking around professional baseball since 2016, when he was taken in the second round of the Major League draft by the Colorado Rockies.
The rangy 6-2 Bowden, who, as a pitcher for Lynn English, was the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior in 2012, had already established a championship pedigree by the time the Rockies took him, having been a part of Vanderbilt University’s national championship team of 2014. A year later, Bowden and the Commodores made it to the finals of the College World Series again.
Though he’s a hard-throwing, nobody would ever confuse him with Ebby Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh. However, Bowden is now with the same team “Nuke,” and Tim Robbins, made famous: The Durham Bulls.
It’s been a circuitous route for Bowden. At the beginning of the 2021 season, Bowden was with the big club in Colorado, going 3-2 but sporting a 6.00 earned run average. He also spent time in Colorado’s Triple-A team in Albuquerque.
Before the beginning of this season, Bowden was sold by the Rockies to the Tampa Bay Rays organization, and pitched for Durham, the team’s Triple-A club. Pitching in relief, Bowden was 3-0 when he was designated for assignment and placed on waivers.
He cleared waivers and remained with Durham, where he is now 4-0.
Joe Caponigro, who coached Bowden at English, knew he had something special when Bowden was a 14-year-old freshman.
“Even then,” said Caponigro, “he was special. He was 6-2, a big kid. But what really got my eye was the way he handled himself, both in the field and at the bat. He was a terrific first baseman.”
“He ended up getting stronger, and his arm developed more,” Caponigro said. “By the time he was a junior, he was throwing in the mid-to-high 80s.”
Caponigro also appreciated the fact that Bowden stayed home.
“A kid like him, he could have gone anywhere,” Caponigro said. “But Ben was comfortable here, and in this environment, and he was great for our program, I’ll tell you that.”
It was a game his junior season that helped put Bowden on the map — a perfect game against Marblehead at Seaside Park.
“We (the English coaches) said ‘this kid’s a big-time player.’”
That was when Caponigro started making calls on Bowden’s behalf.
“He said he wanted to play in the SEC,” Caponigro said. “So I called the coach (Tim Corbin), and told him about Ben. He said ‘do you know how many calls I get like this?’ I said, ‘yeah, but you’ve never had one from me.’”
From that point on, Caponigro said, Corbin bird-dogged Bowden. Bowden returned the favor by helping pitch Vandy to a College World Series title in his freshman year.
The following summer, Bowden lit it up in the Cape Cod League.
“He was striking guys out from Stanford and from Florida,” Caponigro said.
During that summer, Bowden posted a 0.30 earned run average with 43 strikeouts over 30 innings pitched. He helped lead Yarmouth-Dennis to a league championship, and was named playoff co-most valuable player.
After his junior season, Bowden became draft-eligible, and was taken by the Rockies.
