Ricky Bowen was a journeyman baseball player in the minor leagues. Now that journey has led back him back to Walker County, where he is paying it forward.

Words by Justin Hunter | Images by Blakeney Clouse

An All-Star pitcher with the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Sumiton Christian High School Eagles, Ricky Bowen was inducted into the Walker County Sports Hall of Fame in 2017. Using his career as a template for success on and off the field, Bowen decided to open a training facility right here in Walker County, where he is helping groom the next generation of elite baseball prospects.

 The 6-foot-3 right-hander was an anchor in the 2004 2A Baseball State Champion SCS Eagles pitching rotation under head coach Lance Blair. Bowen earned First-Team All-State and 2A MVP honors in 2004 with an excellent record of 14-2 and an earned run average (ERA) of 1.89. In addition, he registered 107 strikeouts in 96 1/3 innings pitched.

 While at SCS, Bowen amassed all-metro and all-county honors for his work on the field and in the classroom. He signed to play for legendary Coach Ron Polk at Mississippi State University, where he would become a freshman All-American pitcher. Bowen signed with the Cincinnati Reds after being drafted in the 43rd round of the MLB Draft in 2009. He spent his minor league career as journeyman, playing for both the Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins organizations.

 After his playing days were over, in January 2014 he opened the Bowen Baseball Academy in Sumiton. The Academy is a 3,000 square-foot indoor baseball training facility with three mounds, four cages, and a weight room. He has plans to construct a practice infield in the near future. “I was training people years before I opened the Academy,” Bowen said. “There were kids I would work with periodically during college. I worked at a couple of other training facilities before I had a place like this, a place I could call home.”

 The 32-year-old Bowen is a mentor to young athletes who have dreams and aspirations of playing at the next level, each one holding onto a childhood hope of being on one of 750 Major League Baseball roster spots. Unfortunately, not everyone makes it. “We often lose sight of the fact that not everyone is going to be a collegiate and professional athlete,” Bowen says. “So, if that is our only in-sight goal when we start out on this journey of pursuing athletic excellence, then we are going to fail most of the time. You’ll have to change your perspective.”

 The Bowen Baseball Academy takes a holistic and big picture approach to the game of baseball. Bowen’s philosophy is one of becoming the best version of yourself. He focuses on training every element of these young athletes, not merely their bodies and skills but also their minds and spirits. “All things are interconnected. Nothing is mutually exclusive from the other,” he says.

 Playing baseball is a great preparation tool for developing skills needed for a life outside of the diamond. Bowen is on his fourth batch of ballplayers coming out of high school. The Academy has been successful in seeing many athletes play college ball, and some even being drafted to major league teams.

“I know where these young men are at because I’ve been there,” Bowen says. “I know what they want. I show them where their game needs for them to get to the next level.”

 “I remind them baseball is a game,” he adds. “It’s a learning experience. Developing who they are as an athlete and as a person is an experiment. Adding and subtracting ingredients over time. No one is a finished product. We all are a work in progress and are on a journey. If you keep progressing, it never has to be over for you.”

 At one point in his life, Bowen would’ve given a kidney for only one inning of big-league time. There came a point, however, when his heart wasn’t in baseball. He had a wife and family and realized he wanted to be with them. “I realized that this stage of the game was over in my life. And at that point, I was starting to fall in love with coaching and the training aspect of the game,” Bowen says. 

 He would leave professional baseball in 2012, never to return to the mound.

 But Bowen’s life in baseball has turned out to be a seamless one. He started playing ball at age of six in the old park and recreation leagues of Walker County. It was a time before expensive year-round travel ball was the norm. “I can’t remember a time without it. Baseball is what I did,” Bowen says. “My identity was wrapped up in baseball. My earliest memory of playing ball is being at my grandparents’ house in Jasper and them showing me how to hold a baseball. Dad, Mom, and grandparents just goofing around in the backyard and them showing me to throw different pitches.”

 Now he is paying it forward by giving back to the eager young athletes who come under his tutelage. During those years of professional baseball, God was using his coaches, the pressure of life, and the game itself to mold Ricky into a man who strives for the success of another generation. 78