To Dodgers’ Chagrin, Eric Davis Turns Out to Be a Steal for Reds

The Dodgers? They had a great Sunday, sure. Bunted the Reds to death, swept the series.

That’s seven in a row for the Dodgers. They’re looking good, real good.

But I’ll tell you what: Every time they play the Reds, win or lose, they kick themselves in the pants about this local kid they let get away to Cincy.

The kid’s name is Eric Davis. You’ve been reading about Wally Joyner, Jose Canseco, Bo Jackson, all these hot young players? Forget ‘em. Eric Davis, he’s the one you want to keep your eye on.

He breaks into the regular lineup in June, in left field, when Nick Esasky gets hurt. He hits cleanup, already has 16 homers and--get this--57 stolen bases. They can’t stop the kid. Only one catcher has thrown him out at second base, one time.

It was Dodger catcher Alex Trevino, a couple of months ago. Alex might get himself into the Hall of Fame some day on that one throw, because nobody else is coming close to nailing the kid.

Sunday he steals second and he’s dusting off his pants and blowing a bubble by the time the throw gets there. He only slides out of respect to baseball tradition. He steals on pitchouts, he steals off lefties with great moves. He also hits long, fields great.

I ask Pete Rose about Eric Davis. Rose, leaning on the batting cage, acts as if he’s been waiting all morning for someone to ask him about Davis.

“I wasn’t here when Willie Mays came up,” Rose says. “But I’ve been here 24 years and I can’t imagine that Willie Mays coming up had any more talent than Eric. He’s the only player in this league today that is justified hitting fourth who can lead the league in stolen bases.

“In Montreal the other day he hits a 3-and-2 fastball to right field. It’s the farthest home run I’ve ever seen hit to the opposite field, ever , by anyone . The next day around the cage I talked to other guys, some of the Expos, and they agreed.

“I’ll give you a stat. On the last road trip, he bats 41 times, strikes out 16 times. What do you think he hit?”

“Two-ten?” I guess.

“He hit .390,” Rose says. “He got 16 hits, stole 11 bases.”

The kid doesn’t look like power. He’s 6 feet 3 inches and 175 pounds, and five pounds of that is the gum he chews. Legs like bread sticks. Twenty-eight inch waist. He looks like something Dave Parker would swing in the on-deck circle.

Did I mention that the Dodgers could’ve had him? The kid grew up in Los Angeles, went to Fremont High, loved the Dodgers. Mike Brito, the Dodger scout who helped discover Fernando Valenzuela, attached himself to Davis like a barnacle.

“He is a Dodger type of player,” Brito wrote on a scouting report filed when Davis was a junior.

When Davis is a senior, just before the ’80 draft, Brito picks him up personally and drives him to Dodger Stadium for a tryout. Kid rattles the walls, even though it’s the first time he has ever used a wood bat, and he runs like the wind. All the top Dodger scouts are there.

Brito puts this kid on the top of his personal draft list, Number One, writes up a new report that does everything but nominate the kid for a seat on the Supreme Court, begs the Dodgers to draft him. But no, the Dodgers stick him way down their list and Cincy drafts him on the eighth round. Brito could cry.

“He was my boy !” Brito says, real anguish in his voice, his teeth grinding on his cigar. “He was my next hope to be a superstar! I scouted that son of a bleep two years !”

Brito, in anguish, calls Tony Perez over. Tells Perez to tell me about Davis.

“He’s handsome,” Perez says. “You walk him, it’s a triple. I know a lot of guys can run, but right now, nobody’s faster. He gets a (horsebleep) jump, they pitch out, he’s safe. Third base, forget it. He hits a home run in Montreal, it looked like a Willie McCovey home run. When a right-hander goes the other way and the right fielder doesn’t even move , that’s a shot.”

Brito shakes his head sadly, rests his case.

But the Dodgers weren’t the only club yawning over Davis in that 1980 draft. And in four-plus minor league seasons Davis was good, but no superstar. Still, he figures he deserved more interest than he got.

Talking about his steals, Davis says, “I’ve just been determined, I want to prove to everybody that I should’ve been playing.”

What’s his secret for stealing bases?

“I just go off instinct. I have a God-given ability to get a jump--you can’t really practice getting a jump.”

Does he study pitchers, like Maury Wills and Lou Brock used to do?

“That’s overrated, just something for the public to see, to explain why they’re so successful,” he says. “If you analyze everything, I bet it had to do with instinct. A lot of fast guys don’t steal bases. It’s instinct.”

Sunday, Davis gets on base with a dinky grounder to short that Mariano Duncan bobbles, worrying about Davis’ speed. Orel Hershiser, pitching for the Dodgers, throws over to first base eight times , pitches out twice, has a conference with his first baseman and finally throws a real pitch to the plate. Davis is running on the pitch, and he cruises into third when Buddy Bell lines a single to short left field.

But he’s just a kid, 24 and not perfect. Leading off the ninth, his team down by one run, he takes a home run swing at a 2-and-2 pitch and strikes out. All the Reds needed was for him to get on base. Maybe he wanted to hit a homer for his mom, dad, sister and 32 friends and neighbors who came to the game.

That whiff made the Dodgers feel a little better, I guess. But you think maybe the Dodgers ever dream about this outfield: Pedro Guerrero in left, Eric Davis in center, Mike Marshall in right?

I know, I know, every team has fish stories like this, the one that got away. Drafting is an inexact science. Hey, no big deal. Like Rose will tell you, kids like this come along all the time, every 35 years or so.