It would be easy to immediately put down Carlos "Chooch" Ruiz or Bob Boone, the only two catchers to win World Series with this team. Or the ultimate team leader, Darren Daulton. But one name kept coming up. Spud Davis. WHO?
Virgil Lawrence "Spud" Davis caught for the Phillies from 1928 to 1933. He was a big guy for that era, standing 6-1 and weighing nearly 200 pounds. He came to the Phillies in a 6-player trade with the Cardinals. And our pal Spud was an absolute machine at the plate.
Davis hit .321 in his 8 seasons with the Phillies, the ninth highest average in team history. His OPS as a Phillie was .823. He finished second in the batting title race to Hall of Famer Chuck Klein in 1933, .368 to .349. Davis holds the team record for highest single season batting average by a catcher who would qualify for the batting title with his 1933 performance.
And he made contact. The most times he ever struck out in a\ season was 39 in 1932. In fact, Davis walked more than he struck out in 13 of his 16 MLB seasons. Absolutely remarkable by today's standards. To put this in context, Phillies catcher Jorge Alfaro has struck out 49 times so far this season. In just 35 games.
Davis is by far the greatest offensive catcher the Phils have ever had.
No comments:
Post a Comment