Jim Davenport obit

Giants announce death of Alabama Sports Hall of Famer Jim Davenport

 

 He was not on the list.

Third baseman Jim Davenport played his entire 13-season Major League career for the San Francisco Giants.

Jim Davenport, who joined fellow Alabama natives Willie Mays and Willie McCovey to help the San Francisco Giants win the 1962 National League pennant, has died. The Giants announced Davenport's death at age 82 on Friday.

A native of Siluria, Davenport attended Thompson High School in Alabaster and Southern Miss, where he also played quarterback for the football team, before joining the Giants' organization. After minor-league stops with the El Dorado Oilers, Dallas Eagles and Minneapolis Millers, Davenport broke into the big leagues in 1958 to start 12 years as San Francisco's third baseman.

Davenport reached the Giants in time for their first season in San Francisco after moving from New York. He was the first Giant to come to the plate on the West Coast, striking out against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale on April 15, 1958.

Since signing with the organization in 1955, he'd worked on and off the field for the Giants since, except for short stints coaching for the San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Indians and two years as an advanced scout for the Detroit Tigers. Davenport managed the Giants for a portion of the 1985 season.

"Jimmy is as much a part of the Giant organization as me and Mays," McCovey said on the occasion of Davenport's 50th season with the team. "We got all the publicity, but ... we all appreciated Jimmy. He looked up to guys like myself and Mays, but we looked up to him as much as he did us."

Davenport played in 1,501 Major League games, compiling a .258 batting average with 77 home runs. Davenport played more games at third base than any player in the Giants' history.

His best season came in the Giants' pennant-winning year. Davenport hit .297 with career highs of 83 runs and 14 home runs, was selected for the National League All-Star team and won a Gold Glove as the league's best fielding third baseman.

"The first thing you think about Jim as a player is that glove at third base," said McCovey, the Giants' first baseman when Davenport was on the other side of the diamond. "He wasn't flashy like Brooks Robinson, but he could really pick it over there. He was the best I've ever seen. He gave you a perfect throw all the time."

Davenport led National League third basemen in fielding percentage annually from 1959 through 1961. He played 97 consecutive errorless games at third base, which at the time was an MLB record.

In 2014, AL.com readers chose Davenport as the third baseman for Alabama's all-time baseball team, along with Mays and McCovey.

The Giants said Davenport died of heart failure on Thursday night in Redwood City, California.

"The passing of Jim Davenport brings great sadness to our organization," team president Larry Baer said in a statement issued by the Giants. "Jim had a wonderful spirit and was a great Giant. We will always remember Davvy. We express our deepest condolences to his family and will have them in our thoughts and prayers."

Davenport was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.