Larry Bowa helping Phillies players stay ready for start of season

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Former Phillies star and manager Larry Bowa is trying to help players stay in shape from home during the MLB shutdown.

As a Phillies advisor, Bowa suggested drills to general manager Matt Klentak and others during a recent organizational conference call, drills players can do safely from home.

Bowa tells Jeff Skversky in a FaceTime interview, "You have to be disciplined a little bit by yourself. Some of these drills don't seem like their big things. These are all things Once we do start up, if we start up, you won't be far behind."

Bowa showed 6abc fundamental drills he can do in his driveway by throwing a tennis ball off the garage door and fielding it cleanly.

These fundamentals are what Bowa even teaches in spring training as a guest instructor in Clearwater, Florida.

This helps with rhythm and hand-eye coordination. And creativity is key during this downtime.

"It's very challenging. I think the biggest thing is not knowing when. We had a couple of strikes when we went through, nothing like this. This was just labor stuff, and we didn't know when we would start, but you had to stay ready. This is the same situation. We don't know if or when this will start up again. But say some miracle happens that we are all praying for, that we start up sooner than later, you should be semi-ready to go," Bowa says.

Throughout his 50-year professional baseball career, Bowa has been a part of multiple work stoppages, including the last crisis in America, 9/11, when Bowa was the Phillies manager.

The return of Baseball in 2001 helped bring the country together and he believes the sport will have the same effect when they eventually return this time

While Bowa's mind is always on baseball he's also thinking of all of the doctors and nurses who he calls true hero's during this coronavirus pandemic.