TOMMY DAVIS

Exactly how good was Tommy Davis? It will never be possible to gauge what kind of career he might have had if he had not been so seriously injured in 1965. Like Al Kaline, T.D. won a batting title when he as young (Kaline, 20; Davis, 23) and never won another.

In 1962, Sandy Koufax wrote: "Every time there was a man on base, he'd knock him and every time there were two men on base, he'd get a double and knock them both in."

In 1962, Don Drysdale won 25 games, Maury Wills stole a record-breaking 104 bases, and T.D. won the batting title and knocked home the most runs by any hitter in 29 years. The Dodgers overcame the mid-season loss of Sandy Koufax and began the final two weeks of the season with a four-game lead over the Giants. The Dodgers won only 3 of their final 11 games. Then, in an ending that evoked memories of 1951, the Giants caught the Dodgers on the season's last day, then won the play-off by erasing a 4-2 lead in the final game with a four-run ninth.

On T.D.'s rookie (1960 Topps), we were reminded: "After a brilliant 4 year minor league career, Tommy gets his major league chance this season. He has never hit below.300 in any campaign. With Kokomo in 1957 he led the Mid-Western League in hits, runs, total base, stolen bases and batting. He was his loop's champ again at Spokane last year with a .345 mark and 211 hits."

A trivia question: Which major leaguer has been on the most teams?
Answer? T.D. and Ken Brett, with 10 each.

Born in Brooklyn, he was brought up in the Dodger organization and scorched every minor league he played in.

He became a certified superstar in 1962 when he led the league in BA, .346; hits, 230; and RBI, 153 -- the most by any baseball player in either league since Ted Williams' 159 in 1949, and the most in the NL since Ducky Medwickıs 154 in 1937. T.D. also scored 120 runs, and had an SA of .535, which was 2nd to Frank Robinson's .624.

In 1963 he again won the batting championship with .326. He had 88 RBI and a .457 SA.

In 1964, he cooled off, as did the whole team, which finished in a tie for 6th in the 10-team NL by hitting.275, 14, 86.

With those back-to-back seasons-to-be-deifed-by, followed by a somewhat mediocre one, T.D. got seriously injured in '65, when, 17 games into the Dodger's championship season, he sustained serious injuries riding into 2nd, where he broke his leg and ankle in several places.

Hobbled by those injuries, he made a valiant effort to return to his old form, by hitting .313 in 100 games in 1966, but could only produce 3 HR and 27 RBI. The Dodgers lost two brilliant franchise stars that season, Koufax and Davis. It took 11 seasons to overcome those losses.