Noah Ryan Lowry (born October 10, 1980) is an American former professional
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or dr ...
. He played in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
(MLB) for the
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...
from 2003 to 2007.
College and the MLB Draft
Lowry was first drafted out of Nordhoff High School, in
Ojai, California
Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and ...
, by the
Texas Rangers in the nineteenth round of the
1999 MLB Draft
The 1999 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, was held on June 2 and 3, 1999. A total of 1474 players were drafted over the course of 50 rounds.
First round selections ...
, but instead opted to attend
Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...
. At Pepperdine, Lowry went 14-2 with a 1.71
ERA as a junior. In 2001, the
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...
drafted Lowry with the 30th and last pick of the first round in the
2001 MLB Draft
The 2001 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft, was held on June 5 and 6.
First round selections
Supplemental First Round Selections
Compensation Picks
Background
On June 1, 2001, Rolando Viera, a Cuban ba ...
.
Major league career
Following a September call-up in 2003, Lowry enjoyed a very successful partial rookie year for the Giants in , going 6-0, and finishing with a 3.82
ERA in fourteen starts. He was named the National League's
Player of the Week for the week of August 9. With an early victory to start off the 2005 season, Lowry began his career with a 7-0 record, the longest winning streak for any pitcher in San Francisco Giants history (and the second longest in Giants franchise history, behind
Hooks Wiltse's 12-0 start in 1904).
Lowry got eighteen starts before the
2005 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 2005 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 76th playing of the midseason exhibition baseball game between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game wa ...
and compiled a 2.43 ERA after the break. His best month came in August, when he went 5-0 with a 0.69 ERA, earning him
Pitcher of the Month
In Major League Baseball (MLB), the Pitcher of the Month Award is given monthly during the regular season to two outstanding pitchers, one each in the National League (NL) and American League (AL). The NL began awarding the honor in , and the A ...
honors. He finished the season with a 13-13 record, 3.78 ERA, and 172
strikeout
In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...
s in innings.
Prior to the 2006 season, the Giants signed Lowry to a four-year deal with an option for a fifth year, valued at $9.25 million. At the time, it was the second largest contract for a pitcher with only one full season of big league service. Lowry received a $1 million signing bonus and $385,000 salary for 2006. The contract guaranteed him totals of $1.115 million for 2007, $2.25 million for 2008, and $4.5 million for 2009. The contract included a 2010 option for $6.25 million that would have been activated automatically if a certain number of starts, innings, and
Cy Young Award
The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB), one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL). The award was first introduced in 1956 by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Hall ...
vote placements was achieved. The 2010 option also included another $1.5 million in incentives.
Injuries hampered his performance right from the beginning of the 2006 season. In his first start of 2006, Lowry was removed from the game in the second inning due to an
oblique
Oblique may refer to:
* an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / )
* Oblique angle, in geometry
*Oblique triangle, in geometry
*Oblique lattice, in geometry
* Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the b ...
strain,
[In Lowry, Giants are looking out for No. 3](_blank)
/ref> forcing him to miss the first month of the season. Lowry also suffered from an elbow injury in September.
Despite a losing season for the Giants in 2007, and a season cut short by a forearm injury, Lowry won a career-high 14 games, the most for any pitcher on the Giants staff. He finished the season with a 14-8 record and a 3.92 ERA.
Lowry was slated as the number three starter for the Giants in 2008, but the forearm injury that shut him down in 2007 kept him out of the 2008 season. After having trouble throwing strikes early on in spring training, Lowry was diagnosed with exertional compartment syndrome and had surgery on his left forearm on March 7. In September 2008, he also had an arthroscopic procedure to remove a bone spur from his left elbow.
In May 2009 Lowry had a rib surgically removed to relieve the continued pain in his shoulder and neck associated with his recent diagnosis of thoracic outlet syndrome. The new diagnosis brought the original diagnosis of exertional compartment syndrome into question, along with the necessity of his 2008 surgery. Lowry's agent, Damon Lapa, claimed that the Giants' medical staff had misdiagnosed the injury and subjected Lowry to an unnecessary arm operation, turning a potential short-term recovery into a lengthy medical ordeal. Lapa said Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Greg Pearl confirmed the diagnosis in separate consultations with Lowry. Lapa said the circulatory issue was the source of Lowry's forearm tightness in August 2007 and loss of control in spring training 2008, but that the Giants' medical staff failed to identify the problem. The Giants, however, denied any wrongdoing.
As of February 2010, Lowry was working out under the direction of noted personal trainer Brett Fischer at Fischer Sports Physical Therapy & Conditioning in Phoenix.
Personal life
In a February 28, 2013 interview on Chronicle Live
The ''Evening Chronicle'', now referred to as ''The Comical'', is a daily newspaper produced in Newcastle upon Tyne covering North regional news, but primarily focused on Newcastle upon Tyne and surrounding area. The ''Comical'' is published by ...
, Lowry stated, "It doesn't look like baseball is going to be in my future," and gave viewers a status update of his still-deteriorating health, his young family, his current career as an entrepreneur and ecology advocate, and his love for the San Francisco Giants and baseball in general.
Lowry lives in Santa Rosa, California, and he is the father of daughters Averlee and Anniston. An avid outdoorsman and sportsman, he was co-owner of Santa Rosa Ski & Sports, which has since closed. [
]
References
External links
:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowry, Noah
1980 births
Living people
Baseball players from San Diego
San Francisco Giants players
Major League Baseball pitchers
People from Ventura, California
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players
Ventura Pirates baseball players
People from Santa Rosa, California
Sportspeople from Ventura County, California
Pepperdine Waves baseball players