YOUR 1966 BRAVES: #27 Billy Cowan

#27 BILLY COWAN
Outfielder

What went before: Atlanta was supposed to be the third stop on the sluggintg first baseman's major league journey, but fate intervened to make him one of the most important players to never play for the Atlanta Braves.
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Signed by the Cubs in 1961, he wasted no time making an impression on opposing teams by hitting 19, 35 and 25 homers his first three professional seasons. That got him onto the doorstep in Chicago, and by 1964, he'd been made the Cubs' everyday center fielder. He hit 19 homers but hit only .241, and it turned out the power-starved New York Mets wanted him even more, trading him for veteran outfielder George Altman.
But the Mets felt like they'd gotten a pig in a poke, as he was a massive failure off their bench with a .182 average and only nine RBIs in 82 games played, so in August, he was dumped on the Braves for a pair of utility infielders. His late-season trial in Milwaukee was no better: in 19 games, he had no homers ro RBIs.

That 1966 season: The Braves fully intended to keep Cowan around in Richmond if needed, but the Chicago Cubs had picked up an extra infielder that past off-season for whom they had no room. So on April 27, after Cowan had played just four games for Richmond (going 1-for-17), he was dealt to the Cubs for third baseman Bobby Cox.
And the rest, as they say, is history.

What happened next: Cowan's slump was not exclusive to the Braves and/or Mets, and in August the Cubs traded him for a second time for rookie infielder Norm Gigon. As a perpetual Phillies prospect the next 2 1-2 years, he was at able to go down swinging, hitting 42 homers over three seasons in the hitter friendly Pacific Coast League.
Off the 40-man roster by that point, he was a rare vetan Rule 5 draft pickup in 1969, by the Yankees, and Cowan was able to spend his final three-plus years as an active player in the American League. First in the Bronx, then with the California Angels as a bat off the bench. The high point, arguably, in his career came when he was targeted by Morgana, the Kissing Bandit.
Cowan was released for the final time in May of 1972 by the Angels, after going 0-for-3 the first month of the season, but he filed a grievance because, he said, he felt he was targeted because he was the Angels' player representative, and was vocal and highly visible during the brief players strike at the start of the 1972 season.