Frank Bowes

In his only season in professional baseball, Frank Bowes manned seven different positions for the Brooklyn Gladiators of the 1890 American Association. The Gladiators, however, were a hapless club, and when the tail-end (26-73-1, .262) franchise disbanded in late August, Bowes reverted to his former obscurity. His name mostly vanished from newsprint until January 1895, when the public was informed that harsh words on a Brooklyn street corner, followed by a punch and then three gunshots, had brought the life of Frank Bowes to an abrupt end. The underlying cause of death: a dispute over 80 cents. The sadly abbreviated life story of the deceased follows.

Francis M. Bowes was born on an unknown date in 1865 in Bath, New York, a village situated in the state’s western tier about 40 miles north of Elmira. He was the oldest of at least four children1 born to Patrick Henry Bowes (1849-1934), an upstate New York native of Irish Catholic descent, and his Irish immigrant wife Anna (née O’Donnell, 1843-1924). Father Patrick led a life of both distinction and notoriety. The standard bearer for his Union Army regiment, he had been present at Appomattox Courthouse for Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, the event that effectively ended the Civil War.2 Mustered out, Patrick returned home and assumed the position of principal keeper (head guard) at the New York state prison in Auburn. Later, he assumed the same post at Sing Sing prison in downstate Westchester County. In 1881, the Bowes family relocated to Brooklyn, where Patrick was appointed to the police force. Over the next quarter century, high-profile apprehensions, serving as police rank-and-file spokesman in labor negotiations, and some embarrassing domestic misadventures3 kept Patrick Bowes in the public eye until his retirement as an NYPD captain in 1907.

Unlike his father, Frank Bowes rarely saw his name in newsprint. Indeed, apart from his tour of duty with the Gladiators and his violent demise, our subject is pretty much a cipher in historical annals. But census data and other government records suggest that Frank received the eighth-grade education commonly afforded the children of the laboring class, and thereafter joined the Brooklyn workforce. For most of his short adult life, he worked as a sawyer at local saw mills and manufacturing plants. Sometime in the late 1880s, Bowes married Greenpoint, Brooklyn, teenager Elizabeth Tracy. In time the couple had two children, Francis Jr. (born 1890) and Catherine (1892).

In his free time, Bowes played for amateur baseball clubs in Brooklyn and neighboring Queens. In 1887, a bizarre on-field incident first brought him to public attention, it being reported that “Frank Bowes of the Flushing [Queens] team broke his arm delivering a curved ball in the fourth inning of a game at Monitor Park.”4 The following year, a New York City newspaper touted Bowes as a comer who could “play any position.”5 In 1889, he gathered some further press notice catching for the amateur Star Athletic Club of Long Island City (Queens).6 Later playing for a nine called the Metropolitans, Bowes notched three base hits, including a pair of doubles, in a mid-October exhibition game against formidable opposition, the newly crowned World Series champion New York Giants of the National League.7

The formation of the Players League over the winter of 1889-1890 wreaked havoc on the major league baseball scene. The National League lost playing talent, with most of its big names promptly defecting to the new circuit. The damage suffered by the American Association was more structural in nature. Franchises in Brooklyn, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Kansas City abandoned the AA and needed to be replaced for the upcoming season.8 Hoping to fill the void in Brooklyn was Jim Kennedy, an energetic former sportswriter turned sporting event promoter.9 Despite murky financing, Kennedy was granted an American Association franchise and quickly set about signing players for his new Brooklyn Gladiators club.

Among the catching prospects gathered by Kennedy was “Bowes, a Long Island City amateur … [who] gives great promise,” reported Sporting Life.10 Although his $1,400 stipend11 was unremarkable by Players League War-inflated standards, it was far above the meager wage that Frank garnered working as a sawyer; he was an enthusiastic arrival in spring training. A good showing in camp then landed him a spot in the Gladiators’ Opening Day lineup. An ink drawing published in the Brooklyn Eagle shows the clean-shaven, 5-foot-9, 160-pound backstop sitting among teammates with a smile on his face.12 Today, this is the only image of Bowes known to exist.

The Brooklyn Gladiators and 24-year-old Frank Bowes made their major league debut on April 17, 1890. The opposition was another fledgling American Association club, the Syracuse Stars. Likely a righty batter,13 Frank went 1-for-4 (a single) off left-hander Dan Casey, but his defense (two errors and a passed ball) was shaky during a 3-2 Brooklyn defeat. Three days later, Bowes had three base hits, including a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, in a 9-8 victory over Syracuse that evened the Gladiators’ record at 2-2. That proved the club’s high-water mark, as Brooklyn lost its next seven contests and settled into the AA basement.

Over the ensuing weeks, Bowes’s batting tailed off – but his defensive versatility made him useful to club owner/manager Kennedy. In a 6-5 loss to Rochester on April 27, “Bowes played a great game in left field, making two hard running catches and completing a double play to second on a fly ball,” reported the Brooklyn Times.14 Months thereafter, “a magnificent running catch by Bowes in center field … [earned him] an ovation” during a 15-5 loss to Toledo.15 Besides splitting the catching duty (25 games) with Jim Toy (44 games) and Herman Pitz (34 games), Bowes played all three outfield positions and filled in at shortstop, third, and first base. In all, he appeared in 61 of the Gladiators’ 100 games.

By late August, the Gladiators were in desperate straits. The club was last in AA standings, awash in red ink, and without a home field, having been evicted from Ridgewood Park in Queens. With the Gladiators on the road since August 5 and in the midst of a 14-game losing streak, the American Association pulled the plug on the Brooklyn franchise. On August 26, the prodigal Baltimore Orioles were retrieved from the minor Atlantic Association to assume Brooklyn’s spot on the AA schedule. And with that, the brief major league career of Frank Bowes came to its close.

During his time in Gladiator livery, Bowes’s modest.220 batting average (51-for-232) was better than the sorry marks posted by fellow backstops Toy (.181) and Pitz (.138), but he hit for little power (seven extra-base hits). His defensive marks (67 putouts, 33 assists, and 23 errors = .813 fielding percentage, with 19 passed balls) were decidedly inferior to those of Toy and Pitz. Versatility was what kept Bowes on the team. He was a good outfielder (.976 fielding percentage) and passable in the infield (.901 combined at three positions). Bowes was also one of the club’s better base runners (11 stolen bases).

Shortly after the Gladiators were dissolved, it was reported that “catcher Bowes, late of the Brooklyn association team, will likely be signed by President [Charles] Byrne” of the National League Brooklyn Bridegrooms.16 But nothing happened: to put the matter plainly, Bowes – no more than a reserve on the worst team in the weakest of the three major leagues of 1890 – simply was not a ballplayer of major league caliber. Furthermore, with the Players League on its deathbed and contraction of baseball into two major leagues in the offing for 1891, there was no realistic chance that he would be given another look at the game’s highest level. Bowes himself seems to have appreciated this: a November 1890 press mention had him listed as among the incorporators of a new amateur nine, the Orchard Athletic and Baseball Club of Brooklyn.17

To support his wife and growing family, Bowes took a job with E.C. Smith, a Brooklyn box manufacturer. He also returned to local diamonds, playing shortstop for an amateur club called the Senators in April 1891.18 The following year, a club in Monroe, New York, reportedly secured his services as a first baseman.19 The last baseball-related press mention of Bowes was published in April 1894. It stated that “Frank Bowes of the Brooklyn American Association team of 1890 would like to play in the minor leagues,” and provided his Brooklyn home address.20 The announcement stimulated no known interest.

The final newsprint notice accorded Bowes informed the public of his sudden and violent demise.21 The underlying cause was a late January 1895 dispute between Bowes and E.C. Smith shop foreman Willard Snow over a deduction of 80 cents from Bowes’s weekly paycheck. Bowes had been docked for missing a few hours of work that week. Abusive remarks made by Bowes during the paycheck argument prompted Snow to fire him. On the afternoon of January 21, Bowes returned to the Smith factory and reiterated his demand to Snow for payment of the 80 cents. “It’s a half-day’s pay and I want the money,” Bowes said.22 But he received no satisfaction, and left the premises angry.

Hours later, Bowes confronted Snow on a street near the factory. Eyewitness accounts of ensuing events fluctuated, but Snow later maintained that harsh words were spoken. “I want that 80 cents from you in a hurry, damn you,” Bowes allegedly said “in a threatening manner.”23 He then struck Snow. In response, Snow pulled a .38 caliber revolver from his pocket and fired three times from close range. At least two rounds struck Bowes, who fell to the pavement. He died at the scene moments later.24 The deceased was 29.25

Taken into custody, Snow insisted that he had acted in self-defense. “That man would have killed me if I hadn’t defended myself,” Snow maintained.26 But a coroner’s inquest ruled Frank Bowes’s death a homicide, and Snow was remanded to jail to await further action. A grand jury later charged him with murder. Before the charge could be adjudicated, the 43-year-old Snow was removed to a Brooklyn hospital, where he died from the effects of heart disease.27 By that time, Francis M. Bowes was resting in his grave at Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens. Survivors included his widow, two young children,28 and his parents.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and fact-checked by Terry Bohn.

Sources

Sources for the biographical info imparted herein include the Frank Bowes file at the Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; the Bowes profiles in Major League Player Profiles, Vol. 2, David Nemec, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011) and Frank Russo and Gene Racz, Bury My Heart at Cooperstown: Sad, Salacious and Surreal Deaths in the History of Baseball (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2006); US and New York State census data accessed via Ancestry.com; and certain of the newspaper articles cited in the endnotes. Stats have been taken from Baseball-Reference.

Notes

1 Frank’s known siblings were Mary (born 1870), Ellen (1872), and Catherine (1878). The 1875 New York State Census also places John (1875) in the Bowes household.

2 According to his obituary. See “Patrick H. Bowes, Retired Police Captain, Dies, 86,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 7, 1934: 17. See also, “On Convict Labor,” Brooklyn Citizen, October 7, 1889: 2.

3 Patrick Bowes appears to have had both a roving eye and a hot-tempered spouse. In the late 1880s, public exposure of a dalliance with another woman cost Patrolman Bowes a ten-day suspension from the force, as recounted in “She Fears He May Elope,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 24, 1891: 20. In 1891, wife Anna caught him keeping company with another paramour and bloodied his nose with a potato masher. See “Surprised Him,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 10, 1891: 6. There were other publicized marital conflicts between the pair, but they were still together when Anna died at age 81. See death notices published for Anna Bowes in the (Brooklyn) Standard Union and Brooklyn Times, April 8, 1924.

4 See “Base-Ball and Other Notes,” Norfolk Virginian, August 17, 1887: 1; “Base-Ball Notes,” Baltimore Sun, August 16, 1887: 4. This item was subsequently reprinted in “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, August 24, 1887: 5.

5 See “Coming Ball Players,” New York Sun, July 1, 1888: 6.

6 “Won on Their Merits,” Brooklyn Citizen, May 23, 1889: 6.

7 Per the box score published in the New York, Times, October 16, 1889: 2.

8 The American Association’s Brooklyn and Cincinnati clubs were admitted to the National League for the 1890 season, while Baltimore transferred operations to a newly-created minor league, the Atlantic Association. The AA’s Kansas City team disbanded, with local baseball fans being serviced by a ball club entered into the minor Western Association in 1890.

9 For full detail on Jim Kennedy, see his BioProject profile. For a brief sketch, see the Brooklyn Eagle, April 20, 1890: 17.

10 “Kennedy’s Kids,” Sporting Life, March 26, 1890: 3. See also, “Notes of the Diamond,” Brooklyn Citizen, February 26, 1890: 3.

11 The Bowes salary was reported in “Personal,” Brooklyn Times, March 22, 1890: 1.

12 “Brooklyn American Association B.B. Team,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 20, 1890: 17. An accompanying profile of Bowes gave his age as 24.

13 With the exception of Baseball Almanac, which lists Bowes as a right-handed batter and thrower, modern baseball reference authority lists our subject as “bats unknown.” But statistical probabilities and some circumstantial evidence teased from published Gladiators game accounts support the supposition that Bowes batted from the right side.

14 “Baseball Matters,” Brooklyn Times, April 28, 1890: 4.

15 “Out for the Pennant,” Brooklyn Citizen, August 4, 1890: 3.

16 “Notes,” Standard Union, August 30, 1890: 4.

17 See “Notes from Albany,” Brooklyn Times, November 29, 1890: 1.

18 See “Sunday Baseball Playing,” Brooklyn Citizen, April 13, 1891: 3.

19 Per “Amateur Gossip,” New York Herald, May 1, 1892: 32. Monroe is located about 45 miles northwest of Brooklyn.

20 “Personal and Pertinent,” Sporting Life, April 7, 1894: 3.

21 The death narrative above has been crafted from the reportage of the four Brooklyn daily newspapers (Citizen, Eagle, Standard Union, and Times), January 22, 1895.

22 See “Frank Bowes Shot Dead,” Brooklyn Eagle, January 22, 1895: 9.

23 “Died for 80 Cents,” Brooklyn Citizen, January 22, 1895: 6.

24 According to at least one press account, Patrolman Patrick Bowes was among the officers responding to the incident scene, arriving in time to see his son “breathing his last.” See “Shot Down in the Street,” Brooklyn Times, January 22, 1895: 10. Hemorrhagic shock from a gunshot to the lungs was later determined to be the cause of Frank Bowes’ death.

25 At the time, however, press accounts of the incident gave Bowes’ age as 30.

26 “Shot His Assailant Dead,” New York Sun, January 22, 1895: 1.

27 See “Death Quashes an Indictment,” Brooklyn Eagle, March 11, 1895: 1; “Death of Willard H. Snow,” Brooklyn Times, March 11, 1895: 1.

28 Sadly, two-year-old Catherine would join her father in Calvary Cemetery less than three months after his demise, while son Frank, Jr. died at age 12. Widow Elizabeth Tracy Bowes, however, would remarry, start a second family, and survive into her 80s.