Willie Davis Dead at 69, Dodger Star of the 60's & 70's

[Bob Borkowski]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/03/09/sports/s150052S06.DTL


"He could have been a Hall-of-Famer, but he had million-dollar legs and a 10-cent head." - Buzzie Bavasi

[Chip R]

When I was growing up I always thought he was somewhat overrated. But, by then, he was in the twilight of his career and I think he had a serious injury in the late 60s or early 70s. Sounded like he was somewhat troubled too. Sad to hear.

[westofyou]

A good player in a non hitting era in a pitchers park, being a AL fan early on my memories of Willie are very wrapped in Expo white.

[Bob Borkowski]

Maybe some Zoners recall that Tommy Davis played for LA 1959-1966, Willie's first season was 1960. These guys were not related but they helped provide the Dodgers with an interesting offense during those years. Tommy had a potent bat.

[macro]

I always liked this baseball card for some reason. It was a strange photo that Topps decided to use for the 1973 set.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3pH8F1XaEYc/SZioGkl-GRI/AAAAAAAADkc/ZnOXS6heUZs/s320/!!williedavis.jpg

[Ron Madden]

I've always hated the Dodgers and probably always will. None the less I'll say a prayer for Willie Davis before I go to sleep tonight.

After all it's only a game.

[cumberlandreds]

That was a strange card. IIRC,Topps used quite a few "in action" photos that year for their set.
I hate to hear about any ballplayer passing away that I grew up watching. It means I'm getting much older. He seemed as though he had a lot of troubles in his life and hopefully now is resting in peace.



I always liked this baseball card for some reason. It was a strange photo that Topps decided to use for the 1973 set.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3pH8F1XaEYc/SZioGkl-GRI/AAAAAAAADkc/ZnOXS6heUZs/s320/!!williedavis.jpg

[Deepred05]

I met Willie about a year ago. He looked pretty healthy then, and was thrilled that I knew who he was.

[dfs]

Looking over his record at baseball reference.com...

Centerfielders who can OPS+ 100 or above are stars.

The only thing he ever led the league in was triples, but he did that a couple of times.

Tough to have your peak years come in the pitching favored years of the late 70's. Even worse to have them come in the late 70's while you play in dodger stadium. That's just not fair.

The most similar batters are interesting Marquis Grisom, Vada Pinson and Johnny Damon. The list by age contains the young Gus Bell and the Old Buddy Bell. I wonder how common that is. Claudell Washington makes an appearance as does. Paul Blair and our very own Bobby Tolan.

It's tempting to say the dodgers let go at the right moment, but he was still hitting after he left the dodgers. No clue why he left the game at 37. On the other hand, coming back at 39 sure looks like a mistake.

Who did the dodgers get for him? .......Mike Marshall. I always thought Marshall was a product of the famed dodger minor league system. ...looking at Marshall's career, he was already an established closer when the dodgers got him and already had a track record of putting in tremendous workloads.

[westofyou]

Who did the dodgers get for him? .......Mike Marshall. I always thought Marshall was a product of the famed dodger minor league system. ...looking at Marshall's career, he was already an established closer when the dodgers got him and already had a track record of putting in tremendous workloads.

Mike Marshall was a Seattle Pilot

http://s.ecrater.com/stores/16330/49396756f2d54_16330f.jpg

[RedsBaron]

Looking over his record at baseball reference.com...

Centerfielders who can OPS+ 100 or above are stars.

The only thing he ever led the league in was triples, but he did that a couple of times.

Tough to have your peak years come in the pitching favored years of the late 70's. Even worse to have them come in the late 70's while you play in dodger stadium. That's just not fair.

The most similar batters are interesting Marquis Grisom, Vada Pinson and Johnny Damon.
Vada Pinson, whom a lot of older Reds fans believe should be in the Hall of Fame, is an interesting comparable to Willie Davis. Their unadjsted career numbers are already fairly close, with Pinson having an edge in most categories other than triples and stolen bases, but when Baseball-Reference.com's Stats Neutralizer is used, adjusting their numbers to reflect playing in neural parks at the historical rate of 716 runs per team per season, the statistics of Pinson and Davis are quite close:
Vada leads in adjusted runs 1457-1399, hits 2875-2797, doubles 504-430, home runs 264-198, RBI 1249-1195, OBP .334-.329, and SLG .451-.436. Davis leads in adjusted triples 149-132, steals 435-318, and batting average .296-.292.
I would give Vada the edge as a player, in part because of defense, where Vada was a Gold Glove winner whereas Willie's most lasting memory is making three errors in Sandy Koufax's final game, game two of the 1966 World Series, but they were comparable players whose statistics were held down by the pitching favorable conditions of the 1960s and by Davis having Dodger Stadium as his home park.