Davey Johnson obit

Legendary Mets manager Davey Johnson, who led team to 1986 World Series title, dead at 82

 

He was not on the list

Davey Johnson, who made the final out of the 1969 World Series as the Mets won their first world championship and who guided the franchise to its second and most recent World Series title as the team’s manager 17 seasons later, died on Friday, per team historian Jay Horwitz.

He was 82.

A second baseman with the Baltimore Orioles on that October afternoon, Johnson launched a fly ball just in front of the warning track in left field where a genuflecting Cleon Jones made the catch, setting off a raucous celebration that saw thousands of Mets fans stream onto what would become a ravaged Shea Stadium field.

After a successful 13-year major league playing career, Johnson managed the Mets from 1984-90. He also managed the Reds, Orioles, Dodgers and Nationals during a 17-season managerial career, compiling a record of 1,372-1,071.

He was twice named manager of the year, winning the honor in the American League with the Baltimore Orioles in 1997 and in 2012 with the National League’s Washington Nationals.

Johnson was the manager of the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in Tidewater, Va. when he was tapped to manage the big-league club in 1984, taking over a team that had won just 68 games the previous season. The 1984 Mets would go on to win 90 games, no doubt helped immeasurably by the arrival of 19-year-old Dwight Gooden, who would win 17 games in his rookie season and the continued blossoming of 22-year-old Darryl Strawberry.

It would be the first of five consecutive seasons of 90 or more wins for the Mets under Johnson as he became the only manager in major league history to win 90 or more games in each of his first five seasons.

Johnson’s Mets would twice win 100 games or more (1986, 1988).

But, with only the division winners qualifying for the playoffs, they would only reach the postseason twice, a track record that led to those teams — which one writer labeled a “traveling frat party” — being viewed as underachievers and the laissez-faire Johnson as an ineffective motivator.

“I treated my players like men,” he once said. “As long as they won for me on the field, I didn’t give a flying f–k what they did otherwise.”

That philosophy didn’t sit all that well with Mets management, especially veteran general manager Frank Cashen, and after an 87-win season in 1989 followed by a 20-22 start in 1990, Johnson was fired.

At the time of his dismissal, Johnson had won more games than any manager in baseball over the previous six years and his teams had never finished lower than second in their division, the NL East.

“I felt our ballclub was underachieving,” said Cashen, who replaced Johnson with third-base coach Bud Harrelson. “The time came to head in a new direction.”

David Allen Johnson was born Jan. 30, 1943, in Orlando, Fla.

His father, Frederick, was a highly decorated World War II tank commander, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. His dad left for the war just as Davey was born and spent time in an Italian prisoner of war camp. He later escaped, and lived with the Italian resistance. The son never learned of his father’s wartime exploits until he became an adult.

As the child of an Army officer, Johnson lived on Army bases in Germany, Georgia, Texas, and Wyoming. The family eventually settled in San Antonio, Texas, where Johnson attracted the attention of baseball scouts.

Johnson went to Texas A&M, where he played shortstop for “the greatest coach in the world, Tom Chandler, a real classic who taught me real respect for the game, and gave me an opportunity to show what I could do.”

After two years in College Station, where he also played guard for the Aggies basketball team, Johnson signed with the Orioles.

He reached the majors with Baltimore in 1965 as a backup infielder, but was sent back to Triple-A after hitting just .170 in 47 at-bats. Johnson was given the second-base job the following season and the Orioles won the World Series, sweeping the Dodgers. Johnson had the distinction of getting the final hit off Sandy Koufax — a single in Game 3. Koufax retired following that season.

With Johnson the Orioles would appear in four World Series, winning in 1966 and ‘70 and losing in ‘69 and ‘71. His best season with the Orioles came in 1970 when he batted .282 with 18 home runs and 72 runs batted in while helping the Orioles to a third straight AL pennant.

He was traded to the Atlanta Braves in 1973 and immediately made an impression on his new league. After never hitting more than 18 home runs in a season with the Orioles, Johnson joined the Braves and hit 43 homers. Johnson, Henry Aaron (40) and Darrell Evans (41) became the first trio of teammates to each hit 40 or more homers in a season.

“It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in baseball,” Johnson said of the trade, “and the big reason was joining Aaron. He helped make me a better hitter.”

He spent two full seasons with the Braves and, after losing his starting job and appearing in just one game in 1975, abruptly left to play in Japan. After a falling out with his manager there, Johnson resurfaced in the majors with the Phillies in 1977 and was traded to the Cubs that August. He retired following that season.

A four-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner during his playing career, Johnson finished with a lifetime batting average of .261.

The holder of a mathematics degree from Trinity College in San Antonio, Johnson also had his real estate license and was a licensed pilot and certified scuba instructor. He had become interested in computers while playing for the Orioles and took graduate courses in computer science at Johns Hopkins University. He was among the game’s first managers to rely on computers for information.

After leaving the Mets, Johnson managed the Reds, where he clashed with controversial owner Marge Schott, and the Orioles where he warred with owner Peter Angelos. In Baltimore, Johnson navigated the shifting of future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken from shortstop to third base, an idea Ripken initially resisted.

He also managed the Dodgers and the Nationals, guiding Washington to the best record in baseball in 2012 (98-64) when they lost to the Cardinals in the NL Division Series. His team won 84 games the following year, missed the playoffs and Johnson announced his retirement at the end of the season.

As a manager, Johnson’s .562 winning percentage is 10th all time among managers with at least 1,000 victories. Johnson and Baltimore’s Earl Weaver, his manager for almost all his time with the Orioles, are the only men on that list who began their managerial careers after 1960.

Johnson is survived by his wife, Susan. A daughter, Andrea, died in 2005.

“I’m still flabbergasted we lost,” Johnson said of that 1969 World Series. “That destiny made all sorts of funky things happen. Gusts of wind blowing balls back to their outfielders, [Ron] Swoboda’s diving catch, Al Weis hitting a home run. Our winning just wasn’t meant to be.”

After retiring as a player, Johnson became a successful manager. He led the New York Mets to the 1986 World Series title, and to an additional National League East title in 1988. He won the American League's Manager of the Year Award in 1997, when he led the Baltimore Orioles wire-to-wire to the American League East division championship. He won the same award in the National League in 2012, when he led the Washington Nationals to the franchise's first division title since moving to Washington, D.C., and its first overall since 1981. Johnson managed teams to their respective League Championship Series in three consecutive years  – the Cincinnati Reds in 1995 and the Orioles in both 1996 and 1997. He also briefly managed the Los Angeles Dodgers. He led the United States national team to its first medal finish in a World Baseball Classic, taking third place at the 2009 edition.

After one season playing baseball at Texas A&M University, Johnson signed with the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent in 1962. Johnson was then assigned to the Stockton Ports in the Class C California League where he hit .309 with 10 home runs and 63 runs batted in (RBIs) in 97 games. Promoted to the AA Elmira Pioneers in 1963, Johnson hit .326 in 63 games before advancing to the AAA Rochester Red Wings for the final 63 games of the season. Returning to the Red Wings for the entire 1964 season, Johnson had 19 home runs, 73 RBIs, and 87 runs.

In 1965, Johnson made the Orioles out of spring training, but after hitting only .170 in 20 games he spent the latter part of the season with the Red Wings, batting .301 in 52 games. Back with the Orioles in 1966, Johnson saw limited playing time until the Orioles created space in the lineup for him by trading second baseman Jerry Adair to the Chicago White Sox on June 13. Johnson then hit for a .257 batting average, seven home runs and 56 RBIs to finish third in American League Rookie of the Year balloting for 1966. Johnson was a full-time starter in the major leagues for the next eight seasons, averaging over 142 games played in a season.

Johnson reached the World Series with the Orioles in 1966, 1969, 1970, and 1971, winning World Series rings in 1966 and 1970. He also won the AL Gold Glove Award the final three seasons. Orioles shortstop Mark Belanger won the award as well in 1969 and 1971, making them one of the few middle infield duos to have won the honor in the same season. Third baseman Brooks Robinson also was in the middle of his record 16 straight Gold Glove streak when Johnson and Belanger won their awards.

Upset after being replaced as the starting second baseman by Bobby Grich, and with the Orioles in need of a power-hitting catcher, Johnson was traded along with Pat Dobson, Johnny Oates and Roric Harrison to the Atlanta Braves for Earl Williams and Taylor Duncan on the last day of the Winter Meetings on December 1, 1972. The following season with the Braves, Johnson hit 40 home runs for the first and only time in his career, tying Rogers Hornsby's record for most single-season home runs by a second baseman with 42, and hitting a 43rd as a pinch-hitter. Johnson's second-highest home run total was 18, in the 1971 season. That same season Atlanta's Darrell Evans hit 41 home runs, and Hank Aaron hit 40 homers, making the 1973 Braves the first team to feature three teammates that each hit 40 home runs in the same season. Four games into the 1975 season and after getting a hit in his only at bat, Johnson was released by the Braves.

Johnson then signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Central League, with whom he played in both the 1975 and 1976 seasons. Johnson was the Giants' first foreign player of note in more than 15 years, and faced a lot of pressure to perform in Japan. He struggled in his first season, battling injuries, and incurred the wrath of the Giants' manager (and former Hall of Fame player) Shigeo Nagashima. Despite playing much better in 1976, Johnson was not invited back by the Giants, who also reportedly prevented him from signing with any other NPB teams.

In 1977, Johnson returned to the United States, signing as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies. As a utility infielder, Johnson hit .321 with eight home runs in 78 games and played in one game in the Phillies' National League Championship Series loss to the Dodgers.

During the 1978 season, Johnson hit two grand slams as a pinch-hitter, becoming the first major leaguer to accomplish this in a season. (Four other players, Mike Ivie (1978), Darryl Strawberry (1998), Ben Broussard (2004), and Brooks Conrad (2010), subsequently matched Johnson's feat.) Shortly afterwards, Philadelphia dealt him to the Chicago Cubs, with whom he played the final 24 games of his career before retiring at the end of the season.

In 1979, Johnson was hired to be the manager of the Miami Amigos of the Triple-A Inter-American League. Although Johnson guided the team of released and undrafted players to a .708 winning percentage, the league folded 72 games into its only season, having planned to play a 130-game season. In 1981, Johnson was hired to manage the New York Mets Double-A team, the Jackson Mets, leading the team to a 68–66 record in his only season with the team. In 1983, Johnson was named as the manager of the Mets Triple-A Tidewater Tides, which finished with a 71–68 record.

After more than two seasons out of baseball, the Cincinnati Reds hired Johnson 44 games into the 1993 season. As was the case with the Mets, Johnson revived the Reds almost immediately. He led the team to the National League Central lead at the time of the 1994 players' strike and won the first official NL Central title in 1995. However, early in the 1995 season, Reds owner Marge Schott announced Johnson would not return in 1996, regardless of how the Reds did. Schott named former Reds third baseman Ray Knight, who had played for Johnson on the Mets championship team, as bench coach, with the understanding that he would take over as manager in 1996.

In 1996, Johnson returned to Baltimore as the Orioles' manager on a three-year, $2.25 million contract. The Orioles had gone 71–73 the previous year, but the team had promising talent to go with future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Mussina, Eddie Murray, and Roberto Alomar. The team went 88–74, finishing four games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East but it was good enough for the wild card by three games. It was the Orioles' first trip to the postseason since winning the 1983 World Series. The Orioles defeated the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series, the defending champion of the American League who had won 99 games, the best in the majors that season, and lost the Championship Series against the New York Yankees.

In 1997, the Orioles went 98–64 to finish with the best record in the American League while retaining the key core from before (albeit with the loss of Murray while acquiring future Hall of Famer Harold Baines mid-season). In the Division Series, they faced the Seattle Mariners. The Orioles won the series in four games, as they routed the Mariners with 23 runs while allowing just 11. They met the Cleveland Indians in the Championship Series, who had upset the Yankees. The Orioles lost in six games.

Johnson and Orioles owner Peter Angelos never got along. In fact, the two men almost never spoke to each other. The end reportedly came when Johnson fined Roberto Alomar for skipping a team banquet in April 1997 and an exhibition game against the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings during the 1997 All-Star Break. Johnson ordered Alomar to pay the fine by making out a check to a charity for which his wife served as a fundraiser. However, Alomar donated the money to another charity after players' union lawyers advised him of the possible conflict of interest. In negotiations after the season, Angelos let it be known that he considered Johnson's handling of the Alomar fine to be grossly inappropriate, enough to be a fireable offense.

 

Teams

As player

Baltimore Orioles (1965–1972)

Atlanta Braves (1973–1975)

Yomiuri Giants (1975–1976)

Philadelphia Phillies (1977–1978)

Chicago Cubs (1978)

As manager

 

New York Mets (1984–1990)

Cincinnati Reds (1993–1995)

Baltimore Orioles (1996–1997)

Los Angeles Dodgers (1999–2000)

Washington Nationals (2011–2013)

Career highlights and awards

4× All-Star (1968–1970, 1973)

3× World Series champion (1966, 1970, 1986)

3× Gold Glove Award (1969–1971)

2× Manager of the Year (1997, 2012)

Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame

New York Mets Hall of Fame.