Spud Davis Digs in for the Phillies

If you were awakened in the middle of the night and asked to name the top offensive catcher in Phillies history, what name would you blurt out? Darren Daulton? Mike Lieberthal? Stan Lopata? Smoky Burgess? J. T. Realmuto? Chances are you wouldn't name Virgil "Spud" Davis, but ol' Spud is the correct answer and it is not even especially close. Over an eight-year Phillies career and 814 games from 1928-33 and 1938-39, Spud Davis hit .321 with a high of .349 in 1933 and six .300 seasons. Burgess, who played only 3+ seasons for the Phillies, had a .316 average in his time with the club. Of players with a longer tenure, the next closest batting average is Jack Clemens .289 from 1884-1897 and Mike Lieberthal's .275 from 1994-2006.

The rookie Spud Davis came to the moribund 1928 Phillies team in April 1928 in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals for veteran catcher Jimmie Wilson. The Phillies also got first baseman Don Hurst and outfielder Homer Peel in the deal. while the Cardinals got pitcher Art Decatur and first baseman Billy Kelly. In his first two seasons with the Phils, Spud split duties behind the plate with Walter "Peck" Lerian. After Lerian was killed in a tragic trolley car accident in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware in the winter of 1929, Davis became the Phillies primary catcher. The extra work seemed to agree with him. He hit .313, .326. .336, .349 for the next four seasons averaging 120 games a season. He was second to teammate Chuck Klein in the batting race in 1933. Klein hit .368 to Spud's .349.

Virgil Lawrence "Spud" Davis was born in 1904 in Birmingham, Alabama. He got his nickname as a youngster because of his fondness for potatoes, but he said he loved baseball more than potatoes, so he gave them up to get in better shape. Despite all these efforts, Davis struggled with weight issues throughout his career. Reporters at the time dipped into their thesauri to dub him as burly, big, stocky, heavyweight, rotund, and the like. Perhaps because of this, Davis was never considered a great defensive catcher. Records indicate that he held his own, however. He was consistently among the league leaders in gunning down runners attempting to steal, generally throwing out 45% of would-be base thieves. He was also usually among the top five catchers in fielding percentage, leading the league with a .994 mark in 1931.

It was as a hitter that Spud really made his mark, however. The Burt Shotton managed Phillies were a hard-hitting team in those days, no doubt aided by the hitter-friendly Baker Bowl. Davis joined with sluggers like Hurst, Chuck Klein, and Lefty O'Doul to terrorize National League pitchers. With such a formidable lineup, Spud generally batted seventh, but he was a very potent seventh place hitter. Unfortunately, a weak pitching staff kept the Phillies from rising in the standings. 

Davis was a remarkably consistent hitter as well, generally avoiding long slumps and injury. Here are a few highlights of his time with the Phillies.

On May 10, 1930, Davis went five-for-five with a double and three RBIs as the Phillies drubbed the Brooklyn Dodgers, 14-6 at the Baker Bowl. It was the only five-hit game of his career, but he had more than 80 career games with three or more hits. 

In 1932, the usually cellar dwelling Phillies made a surprising run at the pennant. Davis' bat was right in the middle of the team's surge. On July 22, Spud bashed home runs in consecutive innings to lead the Phillies to a 9-5 win over the Dodgers. He drove in three and scored three in the game. Ten days later on August 1, Davis was at it again. His four hits, including a home run and six runs batted in, led a Phillies' onslaught as they battered the Pittsburgh Pirates, 18-5. The Phillies, of course, fell short of the pennant, but they did finish with the only winning record that they had between 1917 and 1949.

On September 30, 1933, Davis singlehandedly defeated the Boston Braves, 2-1. Spud homered in the fourth inning off Braves 20 game winner Ben Cantwell and, with the game tied at one in the 10th inning, slugged another solo shot into the left field bleachers off Cantwell to give the Phillies the 2-1 walk-off victory. It was a fitting end to Davis' finest season. 

In November of 1933, Phillies president Gerry Nugent traded Davis back to the St. Louis Cardinals for the man he traded for him six years earlier, catcher Jimmie Wilson. Speculation was that Nugent made the trade because he wanted to make Wilson, a Philadelphia native, the team's new manager. Nugent and Wilson denied the rumor and Shotton was under contract, nonetheless in January, Wilson replaced Shotton as manager.

Nugent had nothing but good things to say about Davis. "I can assure you of one thing, Jimmie Wilson is the only catcher in baseball I would have exchanged for Davis. While [Davis] played for my club, he gave everything he had every moment of the time, and my sincerest wishes for success go with him to St. Louis." 

In 1938, after three good years in St. Louis and one+ mediocre year in Cincinnati with the Reds, the now 33-year-old Davis returned to the Phillies. After a down year in 1938, Davis regained his form, hitting .307 in 1939. The Phillies sold Davis to Pittsburgh before the 1940 season. Spud finished out his career there, becoming a coach in 1942, but returning to the active roster to catch when the Pirates catching ranks were depleted by World War II. 

Davis also coached for manager Frankie Frisch with the Chicago Cubs for a few years in the early 1950s, before retiring to Birmingham. Spud Davis died there at age 79 in 1984. 

J. T. Realmuto may well be regarded as the best all-around catcher in Phillies history when all is said and done, but it is unlikely that the Phillies will ever have another catcher who consistently put the bat to the ball like Spud Davis.