On the blog today we have a do-over for former batting champ Tommy Davis and his 1970 card, which had some generic image of him while being depicted as a Houston Astros player:
I
found a really nice image of him suited up with the Astros, so I
figured I'd "fix" the original, which also adds a little more color as a
bonus because of the uniform.
Davis began the 1969 season as a member of the one-year wonders Seattle Pilots before finding himself down South with Houston.
Combined
he put together another solid season, driving in 89 runs while hitting
.266 with 142 hits and 32 doubles between the two teams.
It
would be a hectic period for the former two-time batting champion,
playing for no less than NINE teams between 1967 and 1976 after starting
his career with eight years as a Los Angeles Dodger.
The highlight of his career is easily his 1962 season when he won the first of
his two straight batting titles, hitting .346 with 230 hits, 27 homers,
153 RBIs and 120 runs scored.
Incredibly,
those numbers only got him a third place finish in the National league
MVP race at season's end, with teammate Maury Wills taking the award and
Willie Mays seemingly robbed with a second place finish.
By the time he finished up, he played in 1999 games, with a nice
.294 lifetime average, 2121 hits, 153 homers and 1052 runs batted in.
The advent of the Designated Hitter prolonged his career between
1973 and 1976, as the previous few years were sporadic efforts at best
with no less than five teams: the White Sox, Pilots, Astros, A's and
Cubs.
As a D.H. he found new life with the Baltimore Orioles as their main "man with the bat" between 1973 and 1975.
One last thought: interesting to remember that between 1949 and 1998,
Tommy Davis was the ONLY Major League player to reach 150+ runs batted
in for a season, when he did so in 1962, funny enough the ONLY time he
even topped 100 in his 18-year career.