Early Years
Bowker was born to Brite and Chris Bowker on July 8, 1983, in Sacramento, California. Growing up, he attended Mariemont Elementary School, Arden Middle School, and Rio Americano High School. He began his baseball career playing for an Arden Park Little League team coached by his father, and he played baseball at Rio Americano, along with football and basketball. He decided to concentrate on baseball as a sophomore. He lettered three seasons in baseball, two seasons in football and one season in basketball in addition to being named all-league in each of these sports. He set Rio Americano's single-season records for batting average (.463) hits (41), home runs (8) and runs batted in (RBI) (41).
After graduating from Rio Americano, Bowker enrolled at Long Beach State University. In 2004, he led the LBSU Dirtbags to the NCAA Super Regionals and was included on the 1st Team All-Big West. After batting .323 in his first two years at Long Beach, he entered the 2004 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft and was selected in the third round by the San Francisco Giants.
Read more about this topic: John Bowker (baseball)
Famous quotes related to early years:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)