Friday June.8, 2012

Photo Courtesy of spokeo.com

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- Eric Davis was an amazing talent for the Cincinnati Reds during the mid 1980’s.  He was drafted as a shortstop but quickly made his way through the minors and ended up in the Reds outfield for his debut in May of 1984.  You talk about 5 tools in a player, Davis was the poster-boy for this.  Pete Rose described him in one of his books as “having the greatest raw ability that he had seen since Roberto Clemente.”  Davis grew up in Los Angeles, California and was a thin-wiry 165 pounds when he came up to the Majors,  despite being 6 foot 2 in height.  In 174 AB that year, he hit 10 HRs an stole 10 bases.  In 1985, he hit 8 HRs and stole 16 bases in just 122 AB.  This prompted a promotion to full-time player by then skipper Pete Rose at the start of the 1986 season.

The Cincinnati Reds had just come out of he ‘Big Red Machine’ era and were searching for young players such as Davis and Barry Larkin to take the reins with the new club.  Eric Davis did not disappoint in his first season, in just 415 AB  he hit 27 HRs and stole an eye-popping 80 bases while scoring 97 runs.  A star was born.  Eric Davis played with an all-out mentality, as such he required rest days from time to time with the nicks and bruises he would sustain through stealing  bases or playing nice defense by diving.  The Reds were always in contention under Pete Rose, however they were always finishing in 2nd place.  It finally looked the team had a nucleus of players that could take them to the promise land.  Davis was right at the top of the forefront for talent. Read the rest of this entry →