SAN MARCOS, Texas — From playing in the major leagues to depending on an oxygen tank to survive. A former baseball player is in the fight of his life years after he said his injuries ended his career.
Drafted in 1993, Micah Bowie said it began as a dream come true.
“Bases loaded, Barry Bonds is up, you got to get him or the game's, the game's going to be over,” Micah Bowie said.
Bowie is a pitcher who made it to the major leagues, playing for several teams: the Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, Washington Nationals and the Colorado Rockies.
“I loved playing baseball. But when you're playing, it's very stressful because there's just a lot of pressure to be successful," Bowie said. "You're always pushing yourself and you're always pushing your body."
He played in and out of the major leagues from 1999 to 2008. Now, 10 years after his retirement from the sport, that lifestyle has taken a toll.
KVUE met up with Bowie at his baseball academy in San Marcos — a place he said he hasn't been involved with in years because of his poor health.
“You don't realize when you leave the game, the injuries, they come with you,” Bowie said.
Bowie suffers from extreme back pain that led to him having surgery in 2016, but he said that surgery was unsuccessful.
Now, less than 10 percent of his lungs are functioning, forcing him to remain on oxygen.
“This is the first day I’m sitting up in little over two months,” Bowie said. “My wife and my son, now their [lives] consists of trying to move me from room to room, got to kind-of help pick me up out of bed…It's not the life I envisioned. It's not the life I imagined…Had I not had the back injuries from baseball, I never would have had the back surgery."
Bowie reached out to the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) for disability benefits, but was denied.
“Then we went through the appeals process because all of this is directly related to playing Major League Baseball, and we're denied again and we didn't understand how that could happen,” Bowie said. “The union leadership is misleading the current baseball players."
In a letter in response to his appeal, the union argued he didn't put in enough time to get disability benefits. Even though he earned three years and three quarters of credit for playing, he needed four years to qualify for benefits. Bowie said the difference was just 21 days.
He had been told he would be taken care of by his union.
“The current players need to know how many guys get hurt a day, how many people get hit with line drives – the ball's coming fast, and I pray we can get some awareness to these current players that their leadership is not telling them the truth,” Bowie said.
Bowie continues to fight for his health and warns other players that their union may not give them the support that they deserve.
KVUE reached out to the MLBPA, but they declined to comment.
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