Bowa returned to the Phillies as the team's third base coach on August 11, and remained there through the season. In 1993, he and John Vukovich became the first two Phillies in franchise history to go to the World Series with the club as both a player and coach (Vukovich was Bowa's teammate on the 1980 World Champions and was the bench coach for the '93 National League champs. Milt Thompson, an outfielder for the 1993 club, would become the third member of this group when he served as hitting coach for the 2008 World Champions and 2009 National League Champions).