Cowan’s Life After Baseball Develops Into a Great Deal

LONG BEACH —  After his release from the Angels 20 years ago, friends of journeyman outfielder Bill Cowan came to his defense. One even fired off an angry letter to Harry Dalton, then the team’s general manager.

A return letter said it was the best thing to ever happen to Bill Cowan.

“Someone in the Angel office wrote back that I even said that,” Cowan said. “I don’t know where they got that from. I certainly never said that.”

As it turned out, though, it may have been the best thing that ever happened to Bill Cowan.

Today, Cowan, 54, is a successful real estate investment consultant.

Except on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, when you can find him on the golf course in Palos Verdes--where he lives.

And there are those long weekends, when he’s gone fishing.

Cowan, who tied a major league record for striking out six times in a game in 1971, has managed quite well without baseball. Unlike many who came before--and after--he was not caught looking when his career abruptly ended.

“I had an advantage because I wasn’t used to people giving me a job because I was ‘Bill Cowan, the baseball player,’ ” he said. “I didn’t have someone to provide me with a bunch of appearances where I could make a living. I had to go out and do something. When I got out of baseball, I hit the pavement running.”

These days, it’s more or less a trot.

Cowan branched into various areas, from real estate to fishing boats to videos for children. But now he keeps his dabbling to a minimum.

“I still maintain some projects, and if the right deal comes along, I’ll get involved in it,” Cowan said. “But I’ve learned not to drive myself too hard. I’ve seen a couple guys my age, guys I knew, have heart attacks. Life’s too short.”

Still, Cowan won’t say the word, “retired,” or even “millionaire,” for that matter. But there’s an ease to his lifestyle.

He goes to the office almost every day, though sometimes that day ends in the early afternoon. He plays golf twice a week and even competed in the Long Beach Open Pro-Am.

“I don’t want people to think I’m more than I am,” Cowan said. “The main thing to me is I live the way the way I want to live. I don’t deprive myself. I would use the word ‘comfortable.’ ”

It didn’t happen overnight.

Cowan was released by the Angels three games into the 1972 season, ending an eight-year major league career that had stops in Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New York again and, finally, Anaheim.

At the time of his release, he was 0 for 3, all as a pinch-hitter.

Cowan was a victim of a youth movement, according to the Angels. He was 33 at the time and was replaced by Andy Kosco, who was 30.

Cowan, who had hit .276 in a limited role for the Angels in 1970 and ‘71, said he might have been punished for the baseball strike of 1972. He had been the team’s player representative that spring. He filed a grievance that was later denied.

No matter the reason for his release, Cowan was out of a job.

“In those days, you got two months’ salary when you were released during the season,” he said. “I was making $24,500 that season and I needed all of that money to live on.”

Cowan already had his hand in real estate in the past. He had been involved in building a few apartment complexes in his hometown of Bakersfield.

He went to work with former Ram Jon Arnett, a friend who was selling real estate in Redondo Beach. The two were together for two years.

“I learned you just couldn’t sell real estate, you had to do a syndication,” he said. “So I learned to do a syndication. Then the deals got a little bigger and I did some more syndications and some more brokering and began to meet people.”

He also found he had a knack for making the right deal at the right time.

Besides California, Cowan has been involved in deals in Texas and New Mexico and did a development in Parker, Ariz. He got involved in property management for a while and has branched out into other areas.

His latest deal is animated videotapes for children, featuring stories from the Bible.

“It wasn’t an easy haul,” Cowan said. “I made some bad moves along the way. It was probably eight years before I started feeling comfortable. I made some good investments and held on to them. So I guess it was better to get released in Southern California.”

It could have been a number of other cities.

Cowan, who was a second-team All-American at the University of Utah in 1960, never really found his niche in baseball. He signed with the Chicago Cubs in 1961 and was the minor league player of the year in 1963, when he was with Salt Lake City in the Pacific Coast League.

“They called me up that September and it was a dream come true,” Cowan said. “In the seventh inning, Bob Kennedy, our manager, told me to go pinch-hit. I thought I was just going to sit for a month. I go up and hit the first pitch for a base hit. I was on Cloud 9.”

From there, Cowan’s career descended, with a few notable stops along the way.

In 1964, he was the starting center fielder for the Cubs and had 15 home runs by the All-Star break. He finished with a .241 average, 19 home runs and 50 runs batted in.

Early in the season, Cub officials were trying to get pitcher Ernie Broglio from St. Louis. The Cardinals wanted either Cowan or right fielder Lou Brock.

The Cubs gave them Brock, who set the major league record for career stolen bases and ended up in the Hall of Fame. The Cardinals went from seventh place to the pennant.

That was the beginning of Cowan’s trek from the Cubs to the Mets to the Milwaukee Braves to the Phillies to the Yankees.

Finally, he was bought by the Angels midway through the 1968 season.

“My problem was I couldn’t stand to sit,” Cowan said. “But by the time I got to the Angels, I had learned to deal with that. I even got to the point where I enjoyed coming off the bench to pinch-hit. I got pretty good at it.”

That may be, but the mark that Cowan left in baseball came July 9, 1971. The Angels and Oakland A’s played the longest 1-0 game in American League history, a 20-inning affair won by the A’s.

It was even longer for Cowan, who struck out six times, tying the major league record for an extra-inning game.

“If that’s what they remember me for, that’s OK,” Cowan said. “Better to be remembered for something than not remembered at all.”

The next year, he was out of baseball and into real estate.

Said Cowan: “Looking back, I guess that was the best thing that could have happened to me.”