The native of Keystone, West Virginia, a right-handed pitcher, played all or portions of four Major League Baseball seasons (1939–1942) as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants and Chicago Cubs.

For his career, he compiled a 26–17 record in 109 appearances, 71 of them as a relief pitcher, with nine saves, 13 complete games, two shutouts, a 3.82 earned run average and 146 strikeouts in 365 innings pitched.

He entered the professional ranks in 1929 at age 18 in the minor leagues, but then dropped out of Organized Baseball for seven out of the next eight seasons (1930–1933, 1935–1937) — playing semi-professionally and working as a coal miner.

[5] The pitcher left the game and the park under a police escort, and an inquiry by the Kings County district attorney found no evidence of criminal intent.

[5] However, on the field, his poor outing saw Bowman charged with four earned runs without retiring a man, ballooning his ERA almost a full point to 4.01, although he was spared the loss when St. Louis battled back to win the contest, 7–5.

But his statistics reflected diminished effectiveness: a 7–5 record, but a mediocre 4.33 ERA in 28 games and 1141⁄3 innings pitched—a workload of 55 fewer frames compared to his 1939 rookie season.