On the blog today, adding to my long-running 1971 "Minor League Days" thread with a card for Davey Johnson of the Baltimore Orioles, defensive wiz who had himself one of the most "where did this come from" seasons in baseball history years later with the Atlanta Braves:
Johnson was barely out of his teens when this photo was taken of him while playing for the Rochester Red Wings back in 1964.
He
had some decent offensive seasons in the Minors before getting the call
to the Big Leagues in 1965, playing 20 games for the O's.
Over
the following eight seasons with the Orioles Johnson would make three
All-Star teams and take home three Gold Glove Awards, recognized as one
of the better fielding second basemen in the game.
He would
find himself a member of the Atlanta Braves in 1973, and go on to put in
one of the most anomalous years the game has ever seen.
Take
away what was to become his breakaway 1973 season, and Johnson's
top-five homer seasons in his 13 year career look like this: 18, 15, 10,
10 and nine.
Well, all Johnson proceeds to do is hit FORTY-THREE homers! 43!
Johnson's season was incredible when compared to the rest of his
career. While playing second base, he slammed the team-leading 43
homers, drove in 99 runs (the next highest total for his career was 72
in 1971 for the Orioles), scored 84 runs (next highest
was 68 in 1970), and slugged .546 (his next highest slugging average
was .443 in 1971!).
If THIS isn't the strangest case of power surge in a players career, then it's definitely in the top-3!
Some may point to Brady Anderson's 50 homer year in 1996, or even
Wade Boggs' 1987 season, but for me Johnson's 1973 season is the most
shocking.
What makes things even more strange is the
following season, still a full-time player, he falls back to earth and
hits 15 homers, before playing in only one game in 1975 before moving on
to Japan for two seasons before coming back with the Phillies in 1977.
It
wasn't much of a comeback, as he'd play in 78 games for the Phils in
1977 followed by a split year in 1978 with Philadelphia and the Chicago
Cubs where he hit four homers over 68 games before calling it a career
as a player shortly after.
Of course, we all know years later
he'd find success as a Major League manager, leading the wild New York
Mets in the 1980's, the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles in the
1990's, Los Angeles Dodgers in 1999/2000 and finally the Washington
Nationals from 2011 through 2013.
Over his 20 years as a
manager he put in a very nice record of 1562 and 1226, good for a .560
winning percentage, winning it all in 1986 with the Mets.
A baseball lifer indeed!
