AN ODE TO JOHNNY DAVIS
It's hard to believe the baseball career of Johnny Davis is over at age 29, and it is not because of injury. Baseball fans will always remember the way Davis burst on to the baseball scene in 1929, and seemingly out of nowhere emerge to win an Allen Award, only to find himself out of the big leagues just a couple of years later.
Davis will always be known as a Philadelphia Sailor for bringing the Sailors their first pennant in 32 years, but few will remember he pitched his final games not in the City of Brotherly Love but instead in Brooklyn. The Kings tried to give Davis a shot at a comeback after the Sailors released him in 1931 but it fell well short of success as Davis was 0-2 with a 6.82 era in 8 appearances for the Kings. Hard to believe he was 24-8 and won the Allen Award in 1928 and followed that up by going 2-0 in 2 starts to help Sailors win the Series but won just 18 career FABL games after that. Davis went 16-14 in 1929 to follow up his incredible age 24 season and that would be it for his success.
He spent most of 1930 in AAA San Francisco, going 10-11 with a 3.52 era and by 1931 the Sailors had parted ways with him. Beyond that he just had that brief stint in Brooklyn in '31 and then split 1932 between a pair of Great Western League independant teams, gong just 2-3 with a 3.78 era in 17 appearances, all in relief. And that was it as we get word at age 29 Davis has said he has had enough and retired from the game.
He did pack a lot into his all too brief career. A college phenom, Davis is still the all-time leader at Garden State(formerly Rutgers) in wins (21) and shutouts (4). He posted a 1.54 career ERA for the Redbirds including an 8-1, 1.49 season in 1923 when he helped them win the College World Championship Series. In his final season at Garden State in 1924 he fanned 17 batters in a game, which tied an AIAA record at that time but has since been broken on many occasions. 11 days after that 17 strikeout performance his college career came to an end with a torn labrum but despite the injury the Chicago Cougars selected him 17th overall in the 1924 draft (the last of the AI era).
He signed with the Cougars but his stay with the organization was short-lived. After starting 3 games at Class A Lincoln, going 1-0 with a 127 ERA+, Davis was surpringsly cut by the organization. The Boston Minutemen signed him just over two months later and he finished out his rookie pro season of 1925 by going 7-4, 3.15 at their Class A affiliate in Springfield. Included in those efforts was his first career professional shutout but all that performance got him was being cut for the second time in his career. The Minutemen let him go in August of 1925 and shortly afterwards the human GM's stepped in and he was smartly signed by the Philadelphia Sailors organization.
He must have been impressive that first camp in Philadelphia as the Sailors assigned him to AAA San Francisco for the 1926 season where he was 7-6 with 11 saves in 67 appearances, all in relief and even got a 1 game taste of the big leagues. In 1927 he was back in the pen, but this time at AA Providence where he finished second in the league in saves with 27 while appearing in 76 games, again all in relief. He likely would have led the league had his season not ended in early September when he was diagnosed with tendinitis.
He broke camp with the Sailors in 1928 and had his memorable award winning season, leading the CA in wins as a rookie, winning the Allen Award and helping the Sailors to their first pennant and World Championship Series win since 1897. It would set the Sailors on the path with the first of their three straight pennants but Davis would only be around for two of them. He was 16-14 with a 4.46 era in 33 starts in 1929 but he did not play in the post-season (the Sailors lost to Detroit in 7 games that year) and would never start another game in Philadelphia after that.
Davis remained with the Sailors in 1930, going 2-1 with a 4.03 era in 9 relief appearances but spent the bulk of his time back in AAA, posting a 10-11 mark for San Francisco. He still showed flashes of his old form, such as a 17 strikeout performance against Oakland in June of that year and a shutout of league champion San Diego in July. Davis was credited with being on the Sailors second World Championship winner that October but like the year before he did not appear in a post-season game.
Likely because Davis was out of minor league options the Sailors exposed Davis to waivers after he made just 1 appearance for Philadelphia in 1931 and he was claimed by Brooklyn. The experiment with the Kings did not go well and Davis was released that August. He was out of FABL for good that August, being cut by the Kings but catching on with Richmond, an independant AAA club. He also had stops in Portland and Hollywood of the Great Western League in 1932 but missed much of the season with tendinits in his arm again. After Hollywood cut him this past September Davis decided he had seen enough baseball for his life and called it a career.
His final pro appearance would come on September 12th when he pitched an inning of relief for the Hollywood Stars in a 5-1 win over San Diego before 6,101 fans watching as the Stars were still embroiled in a pennant race, from which they would fall short losing to Davis' old team in San Francisco. It would hardly be a clean inning for the hurler as Davis somehow survived that 9th inning unscathed despite walking 3 batters in the frame. He was not charged with an earned run but did allow the one runner he inherited to score because of those free passes. In all, Davis would throw 23 pitches in that final outing but just 8 for strikes and, as it would turn out, would never step on a professional baseball mound again. A career that was announced with such a bang at the age of 24 just 4 years earlier, ended with just the quietest of whimpers.
Davis will always be remembered for that one incredible summer in 1928 but his fall was at least as meteoric as his amazing, but short-lived, rise to the pinnacle of baseball success.