Herman Thomas Davis Jr. was born on March 21, 1939 in Brooklyn, and grew up in the Borough's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Since the father was Herman, the son was called Tommy. At Boys High School, he was a basketball teammate of future Hall-of-Famer Lenny Wilkens. He was also a long jumper on the track team. But baseball was his best sport, and the New York Yankees were interested in him.
He changed his mind when he got a phone call from Jackie Robinson, the 1st black player in modern baseball, who said he should sign for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He did, thinking he would be staying home. "Jackie didn't have to say anything to me," Tommy said. "Just the sound of his voice sold me." In 1957, with the Kokomo Dodgers of the Class D Midwest League, he won the batting title at .357.
But the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles for the 1958 season, so, if he made it, he would be playing his home games not mere blocks from where he grew up, but all the way across the country. In 1959, with the Spokane Dodgers, he batted .345 to win the batting title in the Class AAA Pacific Coast League.
He made his major league debut on September 22, 1959, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, by this point renamed Busch Stadium, the 1st of what are now 3 ballparks to have borne that name. Wearing Number 12, he led off the top of the 4th inning, pinch-hitting for Dodger starting pitcher Clem Labine, and was struck out by Marshall Bridges. The Dodgers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-10. It was his only major league appearance of the season. He was not included on the Dodgers' World Series roster, and did not receive a World Series ring.
But he was a regular the next season, mostly playing left field. In 1962, he had one of the most sensational seasons in Dodger history, making his 1st of 3 All-Star Games, hitting 27 home runs, and leading the National League in batting average at .346, hits with 230, and RBIs with a 153, which remains a franchise record. Not that anybody knew it at the time, but he had an OPS+ of 148.
It almost went unnoticed, as teammate Maury Wills set a new single-season record with 104 stolen bases. But the Dodgers lost a Playoff for the Pennant to the San Francisco Giants, despite Wills and Davis going a combined 6-for-8, with Davis having 2 RBIs, in the title decider.
The Dodgers didn't let anybody stop them in 1963. They were less spectacular -- pitching ace Sandy Koufax aside -- but more effective. Davis made it back-to-back batting titles, batting .326. He dropped to 88 RBIs, but the Dodgers ran away with the Pennant, and swept the Yankees in 4 straight in the World Series. Davis batted .400, 6-for-15, with 2 RBIs in the Series.
He played left field alongside center fielder Willie Davis. Although also black, he and Tommy were not related: Willie was a native of rural Arkansas who grew up in Los Angeles, so he, unlike Tommy, got to play home games for the Dodgers in his hometown.
The Dodgers missed the Pennant in 1964, partly due to injuries to Davis and Koufax. In 1965, Davis broke his ankle running the bases in the team's 18th game of the season, and, just 26 years old, was never the same player. Many players have inspired "What might have been" theories from baseball fans, but Tommy Davis has rarely been one of them.
The Dodgers managed to win the World Series in 1965 anyway, and in part-time play in 1966, he batted .313. But the Dodgers traded him to the New York Mets for the 1967 season. This began a curious run of teams always wanting to acquire him, but also of teams always getting rid of him: From 1966 to 1976, 11 seasons, he played for 10 different teams.
For the Mets, he batted .302 with 16 homers and 73 RBIs, but after the season, he was 1 of 4 players they sent to the Chicago White Sox for Tommie Agee and Al Weis, who turned out to be 2 of the key figures on their 1969 "Miracle" World Championship.
In 1969, Davis was a member of the Seattle Pilots, the team chronicled in Ball Four, a diary of the season written by pitcher Jim Bouton. He and Davis had been on opposite sides of the 1963 World Series, and now, both were 30 years old and trying to rebuild their careers. But they didn't get along.
Near the end of August, Bouton was traded to the Houston Astros. A week later, so was Davis. Suddenly, on the Astros, they got a lot friendlier. Davis flat-out told Bouton that the Pilot organization thought he was weird, and that the other players should avoid him.
Between the Pilots and the Astros, Davis had 89 RBIs in 1969. He would reach the Playoffs again with the Oakland Athletics in 1971, losing the American League Championship Series to the Baltimore Orioles; and with the Orioles in 1973 and '74, losing the ALCS to the A's. He batted .306 in '73, and had 89 RBIs in '73 and 84 in '74, and 57 as a part-time player in '75. But that would be a last gasp, and he retired after 72 games as a California Angel and 8 games as a Kansas City Royal in 1976.
Despite the expansion debuts of the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners in 1977, he did not attempt a comeback. He finished his career with a .294 batting average, an OPS+ of 108, 2,121 hits, and 153 home runs.
His only return to an in-uniform role in baseball would be with the 1981 Mariners, as a coach under manager Wills, a disastrous experience as Wills, by his later admission, had a terrible drug problem at the time.
Davis worked with the Dodgers' community relations department, and appeared at Old-Timers' Games, including at Yankee Stadium in 1998. The Yankees were celebrating the 20th Anniversary of their 1977, 1978 and 1981 World Series appearances against the Dodgers, and invited some 1963 Dodgers as well, including Davis, who batted against Bouton one more time.
Davis and Wills, at a Dodger postseason game
Tommy Davis retired from involvement with baseball last year, moved to Phoenix, and died this past Sunday, April 3, 2022. He was 83 years old. He was survived by his 2nd wife, Carol; by 4 daughters, Morgana, Lauren, Carlyn and Leslie; a son, Herman Thomas Davis III; and several grandchildren.
With his death, there are now 9 surviving players from the 1963 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers: Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Ken McMullen, Frank Howard, Al Ferrara, Dick Calmus, Doug Camilli, Dick Tracewski and Pete Richert.
And there are 8 surviving players from the 1965 World Champion Dodgers: Koufax, Wills, Ferrara, Tracewski, Jim Lefebvre, Claude Osteen, Wes Parker and Jeff Torborg.
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