While pitching at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, California, Ownbey drew the attention of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who drafted him in the fourth round of the 1979 Major League Baseball draft. However, he did not sign. A year later, the Mets drafted him in the thirteenth round. In his first season of professional ball, Ownbey was 9–1 with a 1.80 earned run average for the Lynchburg Mets and Jackson Mets.\n', '

Ownbey made his major league debut on August 17, 1982 at Riverfront Stadium as the starting pitcher against the Cincinnati Reds. He gave up five runs in five innings pitched and took the loss. Ownbey was a combined 2–5 over his two seasons with the Mets before being traded with Neil Allen to the St. Louis Cardinals for Keith Hernandez on June 15, 1983.\n', '

Ownbey went 7–5 with a 3.63 ERA for the Louisville Redbirds of the American Association his first season in the Cardinals\' organization. 1984, his first season in a Cardinals uniform, Ownbey went 0–3 with a 4.74 ERA in four starts. After spending all of 1985 in the minors, Ownbey reemerged with the Cards in 1986 pitching mostly out of the bullpen, and going 1–3 with a 3.80 ERA.\n', '

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