Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,879

This is the grave of George Davis.

Born in 1870 in Cohoes, New York, Davis grew up around the new game of baseball and was quite good at it. Living in Albany as a teen, he was a well known local player. He could switch hit and finally the Cleveland Spiders discovered him. They signed him in 1890. He immediately went to the majors. In fact, his rookie year, he led all players in outfield assists. In fact, his great arm led the team to move him to third base in 1892, where he stayed for the next several years. He was solid in these early years, especially given his age. Worth playing, at least.

In 1893, the Spiders traded Davis to the New York Giants for Buck Ewing. Bad trade for the typically awful Spiders. Ewing was a great player but he was old. Davis was a great player and young. Now, he didn’t really pop until 1893, so of course the Spiders saw a promising young player as not quite good enough. But those three years in Cleveland were solid for a very young kid. Still, as soon as the Giants picked him up, he took a huge step forward in his age 23 season, hitting .355/410/554, with good power for the deadball era, hitting 11 homers and a notable 27 triples. That was a 5.7 WAR year on the Baseball Reference calculation, a very good year. Davis would remain this tremendously contributor for a very, very long time. He played with the Giants through 1901 and every single year was worth between 3.9 and 6.9 WAR, hitting over .300 every year, getting plenty of triples and a few homers, and in 1897, leading the league in RBIs, with 135. Oddly, that was vastly more than he ever had before or since. He did have 119 back in 1893, but normally he was an 80-90 RBI guy. Maybe he was moved down in the order that year, I’m not sure. His runs were tremendously consistent, revolving around 100 every year. He also stole a solid number of bases, usually in the 30s or 40s, but with 65 in that great 1897 season. Also in 1897, he was moved from third base to shortstop, where he would remain for the rest of his long career.

Once, on the way to practice at the Polo Grounds, in 1900, he walked past a tenement building on fire. He joined in the rescue and saved a mother and kids before heading to practice. Just an average day in Gilded Age New York. Despite having blisters on his face from the fire, he played that night.

In 1902, Davis decided he wanted to get paid. The American League had formed and its advantage was higher pay. So Davis went to the Chicago White Sox. He got $4000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator only goes back to 1913, with the establishment of the Federal Reserve, but in 1913 money, that’s about $130,000 today. So really not bad considering what others got. That year, he was the first switch hitter to get to 2,000 hits. He then tried to go back to the Giants for $6700 in 1903, but that year, the AL and NL were at bar and then came to a peace agreement and what this all meant is that it was a lost year for Davis, getting 4 games in with New York before being sacrificed to their peace agreement and being forced back to Chicago for the 1904 season.

Davis would play for Chicago through the 1909 season, in which he turned 38. It was only in that last season that his fantastic career saw a dip. In fact, according to the WAR stat, his 1904 and 1905 seasons were the best of his career, with 7.2 earned each year. Now, his counting stats were down in those years, so this is reflected by the tougher competition he faced and changes in the game. Plus we can be a bit skeptical about these advanced stat numbers from that long ago, but it’s one way to try and measure performance and cool, so long as we take it for what it is. Evidently, offense plummeted in these years across the game.

After his career, Davis got a job coaching the Amherst College baseball team. As it so happens, my wife’s nephew is the starting shortstop for that college team right now, playing his last playoff games as a senior. But there was a problem with Davis and his coaching. That was his untreated syphilis. That eventually ate away his brain. Eventually, he had to go to a mental institution in Philadelphia. He died there in 1940, at the age of 70.

Now, Davis was completely forgotten about for decades. In fact, no one knew too much about his life. But then some baseball fans in his home town of Cohoes learned about him, starting doing the research, realized what a great player he was, and lobbied for his inclusion in the Hall of Fame. And the Veterans’ Committee responded, electing him to the Hall of Fame in 1998.

George Davis is buried in Fernwood Cemetery, Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. As you can see, this gravestone, which is basically unreadable in certain weather and light conditions, was put up recently by his fans. I do think people might want to think about choosing grave styles that are actually readable most of the time.

According to the Baseball Reference JAWS stat, Davis is the 5th greatest shortstop of all time, which is really quite remarkable. If you would like this series to visit other shortstops, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Arky Vaughn, ranked 4th, is in Eagleville, California and Luke Appling, ranked 7th, is in Cumming, Georgia. In case you are curious, Robin Yount is ranked 6th and of course still lives. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.