Tommy Davis obit

Tommy Davis, 2-time batting champ with Dodgers, passes away

 

He was not on the list.

Two-time National League batting champion Tommy Davis, whose baseball path as a high school standout was altered by a phone call from Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, passed away Sunday night at the age of 83.

Davis, who was born March 21, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York, died in Phoenix with his family at his bedside.

Davis won back-to-back batting titles with the Dodgers in 1962 and 1963 and holds the single-season club records with 230 hits and 153 RBI.

The Brooklyn native was the first batting champion in the history of the Los Angeles franchise, winning consecutive titles in 1962 (.346) and 1963 (.326). His 230 hits and 153 RBI in 1962 remain L.A. single-season records. He was a member of three Dodger championship teams in 1959, 1963 and 1965.

Davis played 18 years in the Majors including eight years with the Dodgers from 1959-1966. He was a hit in the Dodgers’ new stadium in 1962 as he won the batting title with a .346 average along with 27 doubles, 27 homers, 153 RBIs. He led the league in hits and RBI.

He followed that up in 1963 by leading the league again with a .326 average with 16 homers and 88 RBI.

Davis was a three-time World Champion as a Dodger in 1959, 1963 and 1965 and also earned All-Star honors.

In addition to his play with the Dodgers, Davis also played for the New York Mets (1967), Chicago White Sox (1968), Seattle Pilots (1969), Houston Astros (1969-70), Oakland As (1970, 1971), Chicago Cubs (1970, 1972), Baltimore Orioles (1972-75), California Angels (1976) and Kansas City Royals (1976).

Davis was a baseball and basketball standout at Boys High School in New York and was set to sign with the Yankees in 1956. Robinson, playing in what would be his final MLB season with the Dodgers in 1956, called Davis at home and encouraged him to sign with the Brooklyn organization. Scouting director Al Campanis also knew Tommy’s mother was a Brooklyn fan.

“My mother wondered who was calling,” Davis said during a 2019 interview. “I pointed to the receiver and mouthed the words, “IT’S JACKIE ROBINSON!” I couldn’t believe I was speaking to one of my heroes, although I don’t remember doing much talking.”

Davis received a $4,000 bonus. While his athletic talents were obvious, a former Brooklyn Dodger batting champion worried Davis might be too nice. The late Pete Reiser, the manager at Class D Kokomo, IN of the Midwest League, was not happy when Davis smiled for his publicity photos for his first full season in 1957. “I want him mad at everyone in the world when he goes up there, including me,” said Reiser. In 127 games, Davis batted .357 with 17 home runs, 104 RBI and 68 stolen bases.

He finished his career with a .294 lifetime average in 1,999 games with 153 home runs and 1,052 RBI.

Davis, who worked for the Dodgers’ Community Relations team, is survived by his wife Carol, five children (Lauren, Carlyn, Leslie, Herman Thomas III and Morgana Davis) and 17 grandchildren.

Davis was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Boys High School in Brooklyn, where he was a basketball teammate of future Basketball Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens and played for coach Mickey Fisher, as well as a long jumper on the school's track and field team with record breaker Bernard Lowther. In 1956, he was considering signing with the New York Yankees, but a phone call from Jackie Robinson convinced him to sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers instead. In his minor league career, he won batting titles in the Midwest League and Pacific Coast League. He played with the Hornell Dodgers, the Kokomo Dodgers, the Montreal Royals, the Victoria Rosebuds, and the Spokane Indians.

By the time Davis made the majors, the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles; he debuted with a pinch-hitting appearance on September 22, 1959. He batted .276 in his 1960 rookie season, and .278 in 1961, before enjoying his breakout year in 1962 as the team moved into the new Dodger Stadium. His .346 batting average edged out Frank Robinson's .342 for the National League batting crown, and his 230 hits and 153 RBIs led the major leagues. His 230 hits in 1962 were the most in a season by any player between 1937 and 1969, while his 153 RBIs, a franchise record, was the highest total reached between 1949 and 1998. He also had career bests with 27 home runs, 120 runs and 9 triples as the Dodgers finished the regular schedule tied for first place with the San Francisco Giants, but lost a three-game playoff. He finished third in the MVP balloting, with teammate Maury Wills winning the award and Willie Mays finishing second.

In 1963, Davis won his second batting title, edging Roberto Clemente by 6 points, and finished eighth in the MVP balloting. In the 1963 World Series, the Dodgers swept the New York Yankees; batting cleanup, Davis hit .400 in the Series, tripling twice in Game 2 and driving in the only run of the 1-0 Game 3 victory, his first-inning single off Jim Bouton driving in Jim Gilliam.

To date, Davis' back-to-back batting titles are the only two in the Dodgers' Los Angeles history. Only two right-handed hitters have won multiple National League batting titles since: Bill Madlock with four, and Roberto Clemente with four. Davis won the batting titles while playing his home games at Dodger Stadium—one of Major League Baseball's less hitter-friendly parks.

Davis slumped to .275 in 1964 as the Dodgers finished out of contention for the pennant. On May 1, 1965, against the visiting Giants, he broke and dislocated his ankle sliding into second base while trying to break up a double play and was lost for the remainder of the season, although he did pinch-hit on the final day of the regular season. Three days later the Dodgers called up Lou Johnson to replace him. They won the World Series that year, defeating the Minnesota Twins in seven games. Davis rebounded in 1966, batting .313 (but with only three home runs and 27 RBIs in 313 at bats). Los Angeles was swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series, with Davis starting only two of the four games and batting .250.

After the 1966 World Series, Davis was traded to the New York Mets, along with Derrell Griffith, for Ron Hunt and Jim Hickman. After batting .302 with 16 home runs and 73 RBIs in 1967 he was traded again, this time to the Chicago White Sox in a six-player deal, with the Mets acquiring Tommie Agee and Al Weis—two men who would play major roles in the Miracle Mets winning the 1969 World Series. In 1968, in what would become the "Year of the Pitcher", Davis led the White Sox in hitting with a .268 average. However, he only drove in 50 runs. Teammate Tommy John felt the trade was a mistake because the White Sox at that time were based more on defense and speed, neither of which was Davis's strong point.

In October 1968 Davis was selected by the Seattle Pilots in the expansion draft. During the 1969 season he batted .271 in 123 games with the Pilots before being traded to the Houston Astros, where he hit .241; his 20 stolen bases that year were a career high. He began 1970 with Houston, hitting .282, before his contract was sold to the Oakland Athletics in June; he hit .290 with the A's before being sent to the Chicago Cubs for the last two weeks of the season. The Cubs released him in December, and he re-signed with the A's as a free agent, rebounding with a .324 campaign in 1971. But Oakland released him at the end of 1972 spring training; he signed with the Cubs again in July, but played only a month before being traded to the Baltimore Orioles, where he would spend the next three seasons. In Baltimore, he served as the designated hitter from 1973–75, finishing third in the 1973 batting race with a .306 mark and placing tenth in the MVP vote; in 1974 he was second in the American League with 181 hits. In 1974 he won the Outstanding Designated Hitter Award (later renamed for Edgar Martínez). He played in two American League Championship Series (both times, in 1973 and 1974, the Orioles lost to the eventual World Series champion Athletics). The Orioles released him in 1976 spring training, and he signed with the Yankees but did not play for them. From June to September he hit .265 with the California Angels before ending the season with the Kansas City Royals. He retired after being released by the Royals on January 17, 1977, having played for ten different teams in eighteen seasons. He occasionally expressed resentment for his numerous moves, remarking late in his career: "I'm very bitter, bitter as hell. Why do I keep getting released? Don't ask me no reason why." But he conceded his reputation as having a casual style of play, noting, "the lazier I felt the better I hit", and admitting that he often went into the clubhouse to read and even to shave between at bats as a DH with Baltimore. After his retirement from baseball as a player, he served as a Seattle Mariners coach in 1981.

During an 18-year baseball career, Davis batted .294 with 153 home runs, 2,121 hits and 1,052 runs batted in. He was also a talented pinch-hitter, going 62-202 (.307) in his career. In 1962, he finished third in the MVP voting after leading the major leagues in batting average, hits and runs batted in. Davis' 153 RBIs in that season broke Roy Campanella's team record of 142 in 1953 and remains the franchise record; his 230 hits are the team record for a right-handed batter (second most in franchise history behind only Babe Herman's 241 in 1930), and his .346 average was the highest by a Dodger right-handed hitter in the 20th century until it was broken by Mike Piazza in 1997.

Funeral services are pending.