Now Letã¢â‚¬â„¢s All Agree

The All-time I Ever Saw

I have been following baseball all my life, and 1967 was the first flavor that I take clear memories of the games, statistics, and players (Vada Pinson and Jim Maloney were my favorites and then).  That era is as far in the past today as the 1919 Reds were when I as 12, and the Big Ruby Machine is now farther in the past than my dad’s 1940 Reds (and his hero Ernie Lombardi) was in 1975.  I accept seen the Reds greats from Pete to Joey, and everyone in between, Hall of Famers and comets, and many, many great moments.  The best I ever saw peaked 30 years ago this calendar month, and I idea I would recount the accented wonder of Eric Davis in the first two months of the 1987 flavor.  It was before the injuries, the band, the controversies, and the overwhelming media presence that tin plow anyone into a viral sensation in a day, and it was the finest sustained operation of all round baseball I have always seen.  Let’s go back in the time machine to 1987…

Eric Davis was the Reds 8^th round pick in the 1980 draft, and it took him a while to work his style through the Reds system.  Extraordinarily fast, some in the Reds organization wanted him to focus on striking the ball on the basis (audio familiar Reds fans?).  In his outset two trials he struggled in the eyes of traditional observers, hitting for a low average with a high for the era strikeout charge per unit.  In retrospect, they focused on what Davis couldn’t do at the fourth dimension (make consistent contact and hit for average) and ignored what he could practise (everything else). He had another slow first in 1986 (a .200/.298/.367 slash line on May 31^st) simply he warmed up in early on June and finally became a regular in the outfield on June fifteen^th.   In July, he won the NL Player of the month with a .381/.465/.702 slash line, with half dozen HR, 16 RBI, and 25 SB in 26 attempts.  He cooled off (duh) the rest of the yr, but concluded the 1986 flavour with a .277/.378/.523 line with 27 HR, 71 RBI, 97 Runs, and fourscore steals in 91 attempts.  He joined Rickey Henderson equally the only players at the time to post a 20 Hour/80 SB season.  Keep in heed that due to his slow start, he posted those totals in but 109 starts.  His 5.3 bWAR led the Reds and ranked 6^th in the National League.

In a masterpiece of understatement, the Reds 1987 media guide noted that â€Å"He is expected to be in CF on a regular basis in 1987”.  The heroics started on Opening Day, when with the Reds downwardly 4-0 in the second inning Davis led off with a home run. He added an RBI single in the Reds 9 run iv^th (which also featured Terry Francona’southward only home run every bit a Red).   Through April 22^nd, Davis had a .442/.500/.846 when he had the only really bad games in showtime part of the 1987 flavour.  Facing Mike Scott, Davis struck out in his last four at bats of a 4-iii xi inning Reds win.  The adjacent night, facing Nolan Ryan, Eric struck five more times, making it ix in a row (the Reds won iii-0).  He ended April with another NL Player of the Month award, with a .364/.437/.727 line with vii 60 minutes, xvi RBI, xx Runs, and 9 SB.

And so he raised his stratospheric game to an even college level.

The meridian was a weekend series against Philadelphia on May 1-3.  Davis went 9-13, with 5 homers (2 of them grand slams), 11 RBI, 7 runs and a steal.  After the final game of the serial, he was hit a ridiculous .411/.475/.900.  The next game he stole a home run from his boyhood teammate Darryl Strawberry in a 2-0 Reds win.  On May xxx^th, he hit his third m slam of the month as the Reds beat the Pirates 6-2.  The May line of .329/.404/.841 with 12 Hour, 36 RBI, 23 runs, and 11 steals (in xi attempts) easily gave him his second straight Player of the Month award, condign the quaternary histrion to win it in consecutive months (previously accomplished past Bob Gibson, Dave Parker, and Don Mattingly).  He had won three of the last five NL Player of the Month awards, a tape only exceeded once since (Mark McGwire won 3 straight from Sep 1997 thru May 1998).  The equivalent of going viral in 1987 was making the comprehend of Sports Illustrated, and Eric was there on the May 25^th consequence.

The article was written by Ralph Wiley, and the sub-headline stated â€Å"Cincinnati’south Eric Davis, known as East, reminds some of Mays, Aaron, and Clemente”.  The article talked almost his upbringing and the importance of his father Jimmy to his career.  It also touched on his struggles in the minors (Davis considered quitting in 1981 to play college basketball).  The rest of the commodity consisted of relentless superlatives and comparisons – Eric did his best to dispel such comparisons, quoted as saying â€Å"I’ve got a long way to go. I’yard being compared to the incommunicable.  I never saw Mays, Aaron, or Clemente play.  What near people I face every mean solar day? Tim Raines is the best?  Mattingly is the best?  Why not compare me to my peers?”

The highlight plays continued even as Davis regressed to a more than homo level of play.  He stole domicile runs from Jack Clark in back to back games in June.  He missed several games with an injured ankle just was the leadoff hitter and starting LF for the National League in the All-Star game.  He had some other stiff month in July (.348/.434/.641) simply slumped in August.  On September 4^thursday, he was involved in a play that symbolized Davis’ future career with the Reds.  With the two on and two out and the Reds clinging to a four-3 lead at Wrigley, Brian Dayett launched a bulldoze to the ivy.  Davis ran it down, made the game saving grab and crashed into the bricks.  The resulting rib injury knocked Eric out of the lineup and eliminated the Reds slim run a risk to steal a division in 1987.   Davis, Kal Daniels (who posted i of the great seasons in Reds history with a .334/.429/.617 line), and a adept pitcher carried the overmatched Reds to a 2nd place finish behind the Giants (the starting pitching was really bad, audio familiar Reds fans?).  Eric’south vii.ix bWAR (in 129 games) was the second highest in the National League that year (behind Tony Gwynn), and the eleven^th best for a position player in squad history (a list dominated by Big Red Motorcar members and Frank Robinson).  Andre Dawson of the last identify Cubs somehow won the MVP (his 4.0 WAR wasn’t in the top 15 of the NL), every bit writers in the 1980’due south were obsessed by RBI counts (a league leading 137) and narrative – Dawson had signed a bare contract to play for the Cubs in 1987 during the tiptop of the collusion era.

The run surround in 1987 (4.52 runs/game) was similar to 2016 (four.44), which makes Davis’ numbers in retrospect even more astonishing.  For the first two months of 1987, he averaged .346/.420/.786 with 19 Hr, 52 RBI, 43 runs, 20 steals and 22 attempts.  Per 162 games it translates to 74 HR, 201 RBI, 166 runs and 78 steals.  Who has delivered that combination since and then for an extended period?  He was basically a half of a Large Red Machine, combining Pete’due south striking for average, Johnny’s power, Joe’southward speed, and Cesar’due south defense force.  Joey Votto was incredible in the 2nd half last year (.408/.490/.668) – and if you combine his offensive ability with Billy Hamilton’due south speed and defense, yous would have a decent proxy for Eric Davis at his tiptop.  Mike Trout was crawly last year – .315/.441/.550 with 29 homers and xxx steals.  If you double his habitation runs and steals you all the same don’t accept Eric Davis rate stats in early on 1987.  Of form, annualizing a relatively short two month period can lead to some crazy numbers.  What if you expect at what Davis actually posted for the 162 games after he finally cracked the starting lineup for adept on June fifteen^thursday, 1986?

.304/.402/.619 48 HR, 124 RBI, 151 Runs, 96 steals (90% success rate)

Seriously, who has washed that?  Bonds and Ruth may have created more than runs (and we volition run into what May 2017 holds for Bryce Harper), but with the steals and Aureate Glove defense in CF?  Credit to Joel Luckhaupt for the 1986-87 combined stats.

He did it all in era when one had to hope the highlights were captured on Sportscenter or the local news.  There was no MLB Network and only about 45 games a yr were shown locally on WLWT.  The only networks that presented games nationally were TBS and WGN, so if the Reds weren’t playing the Braves or Cubs, odds are you didn't see Eric’s heroics alive.

There is no player I would want to meet more nether the Statcast microscope (forth with  Davey Concepcion in the field).  Eric was the smartest role player I always saw, and his resilience was remarkable.  He won the Improvement Role player of the Year with the Reds in 1996 after retiring in 1994, and played well while existence treated for colon cancer with the Orioles in 1997.  And 30 years ago, he was the best I ever saw.

â€Å"I don’t want to exist famous,” he says, â€Å"I want to be secure.  I don’t want the world.  I just want a slice of it.  I want people to remember Eric Davis.” – Sports Illustrated, May 25, 1987.

Eric, everyone that saw y'all play in 1987 remembers.

Sources:  Redleg Periodical, Greg Rhodes and John Snyder, Sports Illustrated May 25, 1987 and the unequalled Baseball game Reference.

The Author with Eric Davis, 2017 Reds Fantasy Army camp

kellumockywhe.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.redlegnation.com/2017/05/10/the-best-i-ever-saw/

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