Tommy Davis twice hit home runs to beat Bob Gibson in 1-0 shutouts pitched by Sandy Koufax.
A two-time National League batting champion who amassed 2,121 career hits, Davis batted .167 against Gibson, but made a lasting impression on the Cardinals’ ace with those game-winning home runs.
In his book “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said, “The man on the Dodgers who could beat you _ whom you couldn’t let beat you _ was Tommy Davis.”
Local guy
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Davis excelled in multiple sports at Boys High School. His basketball teammate was Lenny Wilkens, who launched a Hall of Fame playing career with the St. Louis Hawks.
A right-handed hitter, Davis was a prized baseball prospect. The Phillies and Yankees wanted him, but he chose the Dodgers in 1956 after Jackie Robinson phoned him and made a pitch, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.
The Dodgers departed Brooklyn for Los Angeles after the 1957 season, and Davis made his big-league debut two years later in a game at St. Louis against the Cardinals. Boxscore
In 1960, the Cardinals also were the opponent when Davis got his first big-league hit (against Ron Kline) and his first big-league home run (against Bob Duliba).
Civil rights
in 1961, the Dodgers’ spring training site, Holman Stadium in Vero Beach, Fla., still had segregated seating and segregated bathrooms. According to author Jane Leavy in the book “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy,” Davis led a contingent of Dodgers players to see Peter O’Malley, who was in charge of the facility, and said to him, “We got to change this.”
O’Malley agreed, but at the ballpark the next day the black fans, unconvinced they could sit where they wanted, were in what had been the segregated section near the right field corner. According to Leavy, Davis and his teammates “took them by the hand and led them out of the stands” and showed them it was all right to sit anywhere. “Directing traffic until they got used to it,” Davis said.
Smart hitter
A couple of months later, on May 25, 1961, 6,878 spectators attended a Thursday night matchup between Koufax and Gibson at St. Louis.
Davis, starting at third base and batting fifth, struck out his first two times at the plate. In “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said, “I had been striking him out with sliders low and away, and I seemed to have the edge on him.”
Gibson was on a roll, having retired seven consecutive batters, when Davis led off in the seventh inning.
“I had noticed that, as I continued to pitch him outside, Davis was gradually sneaking up toward the plate,” Gibson said. “He was practically on top of the plate, and so, out of duty, I buzzed him inside with a fastball.
“I don’t know if he was setting me up, but he must have been looking for the fastball on his ribs, because he backed off a step, turned on that thing, and crushed it over the left field fence.”
In the book “Sixty Feet, Six Inches,” Gibson said, “I think he was just waiting for me to bring one inside, and I was still young and dumb enough to oblige him.”
Cardinals catcher Hal Smith told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “The pitch Davis hit wasn’t even a strike.”
The home run into the bleacher seats in left-center broke a streak of 20 consecutive scoreless innings for Gibson and was all Koufax needed. He pitched a three-hit shutout for a 1-0 victory. It was the first time Koufax pitched a complete game against the Cardinals. Boxscore
Dodgers pitching coach Joe Becker told the Post-Dispatch, “Finally, after six years of trying, he’s putting all of his baseball abilities together.”
Brooklyn brotherhood
A year later, on June 18, 1962, Gibson and Koufax engaged in another duel before 33,477 attendees on a Monday night at Dodger Stadium.
Through eight innings, the Dodgers’ only hits were two singles by ex-Cardinal Wally Moon. Koufax limited the Cardinals to five singles.
The game was scoreless when Davis batted in the bottom of the ninth with one out and none on.
“Smart guy that I am, I remembered that Davis had beaten me the year before when I stopped pitching him outside and came in with a fastball,” Gibson said in “Stranger to the Game.”
“I thought, ‘Now, he remembers that I remember that pitch inside, and so he’s thinking that there’s no way I’m coming inside again in this situation. Just to cross him up, I’m going to do it again.’
“So, I threw the fastball inside again, and goddamn if he didn’t hit it out again to beat me. I learned right then that the dumbest thing you can do as a pitcher is try to be too smart.”
With the count 1-and-0, Davis told the Post-Dispatch, he was looking for a fastball. “Gibson had been getting me out on breaking stuff,” Davis said. “He was throwing the fastball when he got behind.”
Davis’ walkoff home run deep into the bullpen in left gave Koufax and the Dodgers another 1-0 victory. It was the first time Koufax pitched a complete game without allowing a walk. Boxscore
“There are instances, as Tommy Davis taught me twice over, when a pitcher can think too much,” Gibson said in “Stranger to the Game.” “That was a hard lesson for me.”
In “Sixty Feet, Six Inches,” Gibson said, “It was a textbook case of overthinking. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Worse yet, I went against my better judgment. When I started winning big was when I stopped doing stuff like that.”
After the game, according to Jane Leavy, Davis and his wife went to a Los Angeles nightspot and saw Gibson there.
“I walked over to him and he said, ‘Hi, how you doing, Tom?’ ” Davis told Leavy. “My wife says, ‘Oh, is this the guy you hit the home run off?’ I’m thinking, ‘I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m dead.’ “
Hit man
In September 1963, the Dodgers were a game ahead of the second-place Cardinals entering a series at St. Louis. After the Dodgers won the first two games, Gibson started the finale.
With the Cardinals ahead, 5-1, Davis faced Gibson with the bases loaded in the eighth inning and delivered a two-run single, knocking Gibson from the game. The Dodgers rallied and prevailed in 13 innings, sweeping the series on their way to winning the National League pennant. Boxscore
Davis had an amazing season in 1962, leading the National League in batting (.346), hits (230) and RBI (153). Those were the most hits by a National League player since Stan Musial had 230 for the 1948 Cardinals, and the most RBI by a National League player since Joe Medwick had 154 for the 1937 Cardinals.
Davis repeated as National League batting champion in 1963, hitting .326.
In May 1965, Davis broke his right ankle and he wasn’t the same ballplayer after that. Coveted as a designated hitter in the American League in the 1970s, he played 18 seasons in the majors and hit .294.
RetroSimba 
There should probably be a rule of thumb for baserunners that if you’re on first base and the ball gets hit behind you to the First Baseman, don’t slide at second. Chances are, the First Baseman is just going to take the easy out and not make a throw. And if he’s a great thrower like Keith Hernandez or J.T. Snow, you’re going to be out regardless, so just go in standing up.
Thanks for the interesting thought, Marty.
On the play in which Davis broke his ankle with the ill-fated slide into second while trying to advance on Ron Fairly’s bouncer to Orlando Cepeda, “Davis hit the ground prematurely, his spikes caught in the dirt and he never reached the bag,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The dislocated ankle bone was sticking out at a right angle before Davis was lifted onto a stretcher.
Davis told the Los Angeles Times, “I came in with a new kind of slide. When I looked down, I thought my ankle was in right field.”
Overall, Tommy Davis had only 10 hits against Bob Gibson in 60 at bats. However, half of those hits include 4 homeruns and a double. On May 12, 1962 he hit two homeruns off Ernie Broglio. As an Orioles DH he led the team in hits two consecutive years. In my humble opinion if not for the ankle injury Tommy Davis probably reaches the 3000 hits and a spot in the HOF.
Thanks, Phillip. In the game in which Tommy Davis hit the 2 home runs against Ernie Broglio at the original Busch Stadium, the first was a mammoth blast to left that “cleared the concession stand at the back of the bleachers and landed on Sullivan Avenue,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Long Beach Independent reported that the homer “cleared the left field bleachers at the 351-foot mark with 100 feet to spare.”
Always thought Tommy Davis was underrated, but then the NL was loaded with great outfielders in the ‘60s. A lot of people think he should have won the MVP in ‘62.
Thanks, Michael. The top 4 vote-getters in the 1962 NL MVP balloting were Maury Wills (209 points, 8 1st-place votes), Willie Mays (202 points, 7 1st-place votes), Tommy Davis (175 points, 3 1st-place votes) and Frank Robinson (164 points, 2 1st-place votes).
Some of their key stats that year: Wills (104 stolen bases, 208 hits, 130 runs), Mays (49 homers, 141 RBI, 130 runs), Davis (230 hits, 153 RBI, 120 runs), Robinson (208 hits, 136 RBI, 134 runs).
As an 18 year old kid I did a similar thing in sliding in to second, and my spikes caught the dirt and rolled my left ankle. Nothing was broken, but it swelled up like a balloon and was the worst pain I have ever been in for several days. In fact I woke up the next day, tried to stand up and passed out it was so bad. The doctor looked at the x-rays and said I might have been better off breaking it as far as pain. They gave me codeine and it did not touch the pain.
Still glad it was not broken. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Davis.
Ouch! Thank you for sharing that experience, Michael. It gives a sense of the pain Tommy Davis felt. I’m sorry you went through such an ordeal.
Dodgers team physician Dr. Robert Kerlan told the Los Angeles Times that trainer Wayne Anderson helped Davis when he rushed onto the field and “straightened out the bone” before Davis was lifted onto a stretcher. “Thanks to fast attention by Wayne Anderson on the field, Davis’ leg is in much better condition than might be the case for other accidents of this kind,” Kerlan said.
Kerlan also said that, in addition to the broken ankle, ligaments were torn from Davis’ ankle.
Hey Mark, you might get tired of praise, but it’s remarkable how you bring up quotes from books and newspapers, such exceptional recall. Do you highlight these quotes or have a photographic memory? Anyway, back to this post, it’s wonderful how a player can hit so horribly against a pitcher, understandably in that it was Gibson and yet, hit not one, but two game winning blasts off him! And just to point out that Koufax was not the “left arm of god,” in the last Braves game at County Stadium. Frank Bolling hit a grand slam off Koufax. I don’t think it was a game winner as the Braves lost, but still memorable.
Thanks for taking an interest in my work, Steve. I remember just enough to want to investigate. All the information I present comes from researching archived publications and books and data sources. The researching is what I enjoy most. It’s like detective work and it never fails to yield surprises and delights.
I am glad you mentioned the Frank Bolling grand slam in the last home game played by the Milwaukee Braves on Sept. 22, 1965. According to baseball-reference. com, Bolling was the last of six players to hit grand slams vs. Sandy Koufax. The others: Bob Schmidt of the Giants, Hal Smith of the Cardinals, Dutch Dotterer of the Reds, Dick “Dr. Strangeglove” Stuart of the Pirates and Charlie James of the Cardinals.
i have that Bolling grand slam on video. I downloaded it from you tube and now store it on my PS3, good thing I did because it was taken down from you tube, some sort of copyright issue. It’s part of a documentary on the Milwaukee Braves. One of saddest moments is the end…fans on the field as the lights turn off for the last time at County Stadium, but then of course, they got turned back on with the Brewers a few years later which makes me wonder if there’s ever been a city that lost a team and was never given a new one years later, like Brooklyn being lost and then the Mets coming, not exactly Brooklyn, but close by, Queens and the Pilots gone and then the Mariners, A’s gone and then the Royals. There’s bound to be a city that was never repatriated, but damn if I can think of one, other than Montreal.
What an awesome treasure you have in that Frank Bolling video.
When time permits, you might be interested in my recent piece about how the Cardinals tried hard to acquire Billy Bruton from the Milwaukee Braves, and why the Braves dealt him instead to the Tigers for Frank Bolling: https://retrosimba.com/2022/02/23/why-cardinals-preferred-bill-bruton-to-curt-flood/