07-19-2004, 01:17 AM
Quote:Voice of Florida St. baseball dies at 47
Lee Bowen called 'Noles games for last 15 years
By Steve Ellis
<a href='http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/9181103.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/9181103.htm</a>
The sound of Florida State baseball will be sadly different in the spring.
Lee Bowen, the voice of FSU baseball for 15 years, died in his sleep early Saturday morning after suffering an apparent heart attack at his allahassee home.
"Florida State baseball will never be the same without Lee Bowen," FSU coach Mike Martin said. "He brought so much to our program. He was a friend and a Seminole.
"I'm in a state of shock. You do not replace Lee Bowen."
Martin credits Bowen, 47, for working behind the scenes to expand the coverage of FSU baseball, including the addition of FM broadcasts, as well as Internet coverage. Fans knew his broadcasts for his attention to detail and passion for the game and FSU.
"My first commandment is 'Tell what's going on,"' Bowen once told the Tallahassee Democrat. "Any color I can add after that, I'll go for. But I think the A-No.1 thing listeners want to know is: 'What's going on?'"
Bowen began his broadcast career in Tallahassee in 1982 as a news reporter for WTNT. He became a statistician for FSU's radio network before taking over play-by-play duties for baseball games in 1990. He also called play-by-play for the Burlington (N.C.) Indians of the Appalachian League during the summers of the early 1990s. Bowen will also be remembered for taking over WNLS' afternoon sports show following the departure of Rick Ballou in 1996. But mostly it is his association with FSU baseball broadcasts that stands out.
"He is Florida State baseball to me," said assistant sports information director Jeff Purinton, who coordinated media operations for Seminole baseball. "I can't imagine the game without Lee Bowen. He did an outstanding job and will be missed by a lot of people."
Bowen provided the play-by-play of seven College World Series appearances by the Seminoles and called countless great moments of FSU baseball. Bowen, a Pennsylvania native, could put FSU baseball fans on the edge of their seats with an emotionally charged delivery that was heavily peppered with well-researched statistics. Associate FSU baseball coach Jamey Shouppe called Bowen a "stat rat" - a compliment in the business - and said that the staff benefitted from Bowen's information -
especially regarding trends and streaks.
"He wore his emotions on his sleeve at times, but that's one of the things I like about listening to him," FSU baseball fan Drew Hankin said. "He was the man who brought the game to the fans."
"He loved Florida State baseball," Purinton added. "He took losses harder than anybody - you could get on the bus after a game and look at Lee or (Martin) and tell whether we had won or lost. Yet he was a professional. It's harder than people think."
In addition to providing the play-by-play of FSU baseball games, Bowen
worked for FSU marketing and the school's biological science department.
He was also a broadcast coordinator for football and men's basketball on FSU's radio network.
"He did the extra things he didn't get paid to do - it wasn't just a job to him," Shouppe said of Bowen's play-by-play duties. "He loved FSU baseball and the game of baseball dearly."
Bowen is survived by his wife, Adrienne, and his mother, Marjorie, who lives in Altoona, Pa. A funeral will be held Tuesday morning at 11a.m. at Bevis Funeral Home on North Monroe Street. Donations can be made to the Lee Bowen Memorial Scholarship through FSU baseball.
:crying:
On a personal note, I got to meet Lee a couple years ago at an "Animals of Section B BBQ". What an honor it was to meet the man that I had been listening to both on the radio and internet radio for called the games for my beloved FSU Seminole Baseball team. Condolences to his wife Adrienne, whom I also met, and to his mother. God Bless...