Born April 15, 1940
Mineral Springs, AR, USA
He got 2,091 hits for the Dodgers, more than anyone has since the club moved west, and 2,561 in eighteen seasons with 398 stolen bases, 138 triples and a .279 average. He hit in 31 straight games in 1969, which is still the club's longest streak, and won three Gold Gloves in center field.
In the fifth inning of the second game of the 1966 World Series he lost two fly balls in the sun and threw the ball away trying to recover, three errors in one inning, and Baltimore won 6-0 on the way to a sweep. Sandy Koufax was pitching. It is the last game Koufax ever pitched.
He was fast enough that the Dodgers timed him at 9.5 seconds for a hundred yards in high school, and he long-jumped 25 feet. He became a practising Buddhist in the 1970s and chanted in the clubhouse, which his teammates found variously calming and otherwise. No writers' ballot listed him. He died in 2010, at sixty-nine.
| Award | Times | Years |
|---|---|---|
| All-Star selection | 2 | 1971, 1973 |
| Gold Glove | 3 | 1971, 1972, 1973 |
| Player of the Week | 1 | 1973 |
| The Sporting News All-Star | 1 | 1971 |
| Year | Team | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | LAD | 22 | 88 | 12 | 28 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 12 | 3 | .318 |
| 1961 | LAD | 128 | 339 | 56 | 86 | 19 | 6 | 12 | 45 | 27 | 46 | 12 | .254 |
| 1962 | LAD | 157 | 600 | 103 | 171 | 18 | 10 | 21 | 85 | 42 | 72 | 32 | .285 |
| 1963 | LAD | 156 | 515 | 60 | 126 | 19 | 8 | 9 | 60 | 25 | 61 | 25 | .245 |
| 1964 | LAD | 157 | 613 | 91 | 180 | 23 | 7 | 12 | 77 | 22 | 59 | 42 | .294 |
| 1965 | LAD | 142 | 558 | 52 | 133 | 24 | 3 | 10 | 57 | 14 | 81 | 25 | .238 |
| 1966 | LAD | 153 | 624 | 74 | 177 | 31 | 6 | 11 | 61 | 15 | 68 | 21 | .284 |
| 1967 | LAD | 143 | 569 | 65 | 146 | 27 | 9 | 6 | 41 | 29 | 65 | 20 | .257 |
| 1968 | LAD | 160 | 643 | 86 | 161 | 24 | 10 | 7 | 31 | 31 | 88 | 36 | .250 |
| 1969 | LAD | 129 | 498 | 66 | 155 | 23 | 8 | 11 | 59 | 33 | 39 | 24 | .311 |
| 1970 | LAD | 146 | 593 | 92 | 181 | 23 | 16 | 8 | 93 | 29 | 54 | 38 | .305 |
| 1971 | LAD | 158 | 641 | 84 | 198 | 33 | 10 | 10 | 74 | 23 | 47 | 20 | .309 |
| 1972 | LAD | 149 | 615 | 81 | 178 | 22 | 7 | 19 | 79 | 27 | 61 | 20 | .289 |
| 1973 | LAD | 152 | 599 | 82 | 171 | 29 | 9 | 16 | 77 | 29 | 62 | 17 | .285 |
| 1974 | MON | 153 | 611 | 86 | 180 | 27 | 9 | 12 | 89 | 27 | 69 | 25 | .295 |
| 1975 | STL/TEX | 140 | 519 | 57 | 144 | 27 | 8 | 11 | 67 | 18 | 52 | 23 | .277 |
| 1976 | SDP | 141 | 493 | 61 | 132 | 18 | 10 | 5 | 46 | 19 | 34 | 14 | .268 |
| 1979 | CAL | 43 | 56 | 9 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 1 | .250 |
| Career | — | 2429 | 9174 | 1217 | 2561 | 395 | 138 | 182 | 1053 | 418 | 977 | 398 | .279 |
Mineral Springs, AR, USA
Willie Davis made a major-league debut on September 8, 1960.
Willie Davis played a final major-league game on September 30, 1979.
Image: Unknown author Unknown, public domain