Back in 1991, the then-still California Angels headed into Spring Training with a couple of very big bats scheduled to be in the middle of their lineup. Future Hall of Famer Dave Winfield had come over the previous season from the Yankees for Mike Witt, while former NL MVP Dave Parker had arrived in the off-season from the Brewers for Dante Bichette.
It didn't work out as planned, as Parker was released in September to hook on with eventual AL East champion Blue Jays for one last fling while the Angels finished 81-81 but still seventh and dead last in the AL West. Winfield also fled to Toronto the following year to win a World Series ring (Parker had retired by that point) while the Angels "improved" to sixth place while falling to 70-92, and the Halos as an organization were Dave-free (unless you count homerless 1B Alvin Davis who was released before the end of June).
Still, in Spring Training of '91, hopes were high and grins were wide as Parker unveiled the tee-shirt he wore under his uniform, bearing the slogan "Mama Said There'd Be Daves Like These." Indeed, two of the top three or four Davids ever to play major league baseball converged briefly that summer and like sands through the hourglass, they will undoubtedly anchor ...
THE DAVES OF OUR LIVES
**indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
MGR: Davey Johnson (1148-888, five flags, one title)
Bench Coach: Dave Bristol (657-764, no flags)
STARTING LINEUP
C Dave Nilsson* (.284, 105 homers in eight years)
1B David Ortiz* (88 homers, 2004-05)
2B Davey Lopes* (.263, 557 SB in 16 years)
SS Dave Bancroft** (.279, 2005 hits in 16 seasons)
3B David "Buddy" Bell* (.279, 201 homers, six Gold Gloves)
LF Dave Winfield** (.283, 465 homers, seven Gold Gloves)
CF Dave Henderson 9>258, 197 homers in 14 years)
RF Dave Parker* (.290, 339 homers, three Gold Gloves)
DH Dave Kingman (.236, 442 homers)
BENCH
C Dave Duncan* (.214 in 11 seasons)
SS/UTIL Dave Concepcion* (2326 hits, 321 SB, did all but C)
3B/1B/DH Dave Hollins* (.260, 112 homers in 12 years)
OF David Justice* (.279, 305 homers)
OF David "Gus" Bell (.281, 206 homers in 15 years)
UTIL Dave Foutz (1B/OF/RHP, 147-66, .275 BA)
STARTING ROTATION
RHSP David Cone* (194-126, 2668 K)
LHSP David Wells* (227-143 through 2005)
RHSP Dave Stewart (168-129, four straight 20-win seasons, 1987-90)
LHSP Dave McNally* (184-119, four straight 20-win seasons, 1968-71)
5SP-RH Dave Stieb (176-137)
BULLPEN
CL-RH Dave S. Smith* (53-53, 216 saves)
LHRP Dave Righetti* (82-79, 252 saves)
RHRP Dave Giusti* (100-93, 145 saves)
LHRP Dave LaRoche* (65-58, 126 saves)
RH-LONG Dave Dravecky* (64-57)
Some Daves are Better Than Others ... Other Daves/Davids to manage in the big leagues include Bancroft, Bell, Foutz, Garcia, Lopes, Miley, Orr, Rowe ... That's right, we could have coaches whose last names are "Orr" and "Rowe," but they'd probably lobby entirely too hard for us to add cuppajoe 1985 PHI RHRP Dave Shipanoff and we can't afford to have them rocking the "boat" like that ... As of this writing, Boomer Wells is the only Dave or David to have surpassed 200 career victories ... In 2005, Wells also joined Cone as the only Daves or Davids to crack the 2,000 strikeout barrier, but the latter fell an even half dozen wins shy of 200 ...
Dave Foutz compiled a 99-42 mark in the three year span from 1885-87, but also hit .357 in 1887 and spent most of the rest of his career at 1B and in the OF ending up with a career batting average of .276 ... San Diego residents will also tell you that having D. Foutz on the bench should qualm any fears about the quarterback position ... Bancroft is the only Dave other than Winfield inducted into Cooperstown, but the .279-hitter seems a dubious choice in retrospect; even his official Hall of Fame biography uses the phrase "solid, if unspectacular" ... All of the Bell boys (insert hotel joke here) were named "David," though dad went by "Buddy" and gramps by "Gus" ... Buddy was probably the best of the three as a player and could also join the coaching staff, with a 388-531 managerial record to his credit thus far ...
Boo Ferriss' career started spectacularly, but was cut short by asthma and arm trouble ... Dave May is probably best remembered as the guy who was essentially traded straight-up from the Brewers to the Braves for Hank Aaron so the Home Run King could finish his career in Milwaukee ... Speaking of the Brewers and short careers, Australia native Dave Nilsson left the majors at the age of 29 after a .309/21-homer finale primarily as a catcher in 1999 ...
May and Ferriss are among several All-Stars to not make the Glory Daves roster, including IF Davey Williams, forced into retirement by chronic back trouble at the age of 27 and former Jay RHSP Dave Lemanczyk, who despite a career record of 37-63, was a 1979 All-Star in what was most assuredly NOT his best season ... That'd be 1977, when he somehow managed to cobble together a 13-16 record despite a seasonal ERA+ of just 99 for the 1977 Baby Jays ...
Others include C/OF Dave Engle (.262 in nine seasons), 2B Dave Cash (.283 in 12 seasons), speedy 2B/3B Dave Nelson (94 SB, 1972-73) and a couple of former Angel middle infielders, one preceding and one postdating the above "Daves Like These" story, Dave Chalk (.252 in nine seasons) and of course David Eckstein (.282 through 2005) ... Dave Collins never made an All-Star team, but hit .272 and stole 395 bases from 1975-90 ... Still haven't figured out how David Jonathan Drew has abbreviated his name to "J.D." ... Dave Rozema was 16-7 as a Tiger rookie in 1977, but just 44-46 after that ...
OF/1B David Green was twice packaged with another David, RHSP Dave "80-86 career" LaPoint (among others) in deals for Ted Simmons, Rollie Fingers and Pete Vuckovich on the one hand and later for Jack Clark ... LHRP Dave Koslo was 92-107 from 1941-55, mostly with the NYG ... Dave Magadan was a .288 career hitter over 16 seasons while Dave Martinez was at .276 over the exact same 1986-2001 span ... Oh, if only Dave Stapleton had taken the field for Buckner in the ninth inning of Game 6 in 1986, maybe there wouldn't have been such a fuss over Schilling's bloody sock 18 years later ... David Weathers has been a more than serviceable RHRP for 15 years and finally got a chance to close with the Reds in 2005 after Danny Graves imploded ... Young David Wright hit .306 with 27 homers for the Mets in 2005 and probably isn't that far off bumping Buddy Bell, or at least Dave Hollins, from the Glory Daves squad ...
Among those who preceded the All-Star era entirely were OF David Beals Becker (.276, 1908-15); the charmingly named 3B/SS Dave Brain (.252, 1901-08); Wee Davy Force, a 5'4" SS/2B/3B who hit .249 from 1871-86; Dave Harris, primarily an OF who hit .281 from 1925-34; and 2B Dave Shean, who hit .228 from 1906-19 ...
In the strange case of Dave Stenhouse, the RHSP was a 28-year-old rookie with the 1962 Senators, and carrying a 10-4 record into that year's midsummer break, he was chosen to start the season's second All-Star Game (remember that setup?) ... But Stenhouse collapsed to a 1-8 mark in the second half of the season, and after that spectacular half-season breakout, was just 6-24 the remainder of his career ... Dave's son Mike was an OF with three teams, including the Expos, while son Dave was briefly a catcher in the Blue Jays system ...
C'mon, Bauxites ... you are hereby Double-Dog-"Daved" to improve this team!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20051030150845104