Dale Cowser knew from the second his son Colton walked onto the field for his major league debut that he wasn’t nervous at all.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound outfielder was called up recently after being ranked as high as the No. 13 prospect in baseball. Cowser was batting .330/.459/.537 with 21 extra-base hits and 40 RBIs for Triple-A Norfolk this season. The 23-year-old had the stage set at Yankee Stadium for his debut with the Orioles.
“I was concerned about the nerves walking into Yankee Stadium for your debut,” the elder Cowser said on Glenn Clark Radio July 6. “But I could tell, as anyone that knows [how he plays] the game, that from the first minute I saw him on the field he wasn’t nervous at all. You could tell he was pretty locked in.”
Dale had no inclination his son was going to be promoted until July 4, when Colton was a late scratch from the Tides’ game that night. When the game ended, Colton called his family with news and asked whether or not they’d make it to New York the next night. The Cowser family caught a flight the next day to witness Colton’s major league debut.
Cowser went 1-for-3 with a walk in his debut, getting the Orioles on the board in the sixth with an RBI single to right field. Baltimore won the game, 6-3.
“I knew he was pretty locked in at the plate,” Dale said. “When the opportunity came for the base knock, he was locked in, you could tell he was seeing the ball pretty well. … It was really, really cool.”
In five games with the majors, Cowser is batting .188 with six runs and two RBIs. Baltimore has gone on a five-game win streak since the call-up, ending a dry spell when the team went 1-6 in its previous seven games.
Cowser was drafted by the Orioles fifth overall in the 2021 MLB Draft out of Sam Houston State University. Cowser spent three years with the Bearkats, slashing .354/.460/.608 in his collegiate career. Infield prospect Connor Norby was drafted in the second round of that draft by the Orioles, and Dale described Cowser’s 2021 draft class as being as close as a college friend group.
Cowser has developed close friendships in the Orioles organization since joining in 2021. Cowser shared the postgame interview with his close friend and infielder Jordan Westburg after his debut in New York.
“One thing that Mike Elias has done, in my opinion, is he’s really gone after it and drafted just high-character, mature kids,” Dale said. “… He really drafted a lot of really, really, really good kids that are really high character and hard-working kids. That group is very, very close.”
The Orioles currently sit at 54-35 and two games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the AL East. Baltimore has the third-best record in MLB.
“I’m just really proud of him,” Dale said. “… The game is meant to be fun and he has fun doing it. And you could just tell out on the field, he was taking it all in. But when the lights came on, it was like, ‘It’s go time.'”
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For more from Dale Cowser, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dale Cowser