Ike Davis
Isaac Benjamin Davis is an American former professional baseball first baseman. From 2010 through 2016, he played in Major League Baseball for the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics, and New York Yankees.
Davis led his high school team to three straight Arizona state championships as a pitcher and first baseman. As a hitter he batted.447, while as a pitcher he recorded a 23–0 win–loss record, a 1.85 earned run average, and 14 saves. He also pitched for the gold medal-winning U.S.A. Youth National Team in the 2003 World Youth Championships, and was the most valuable player of the 2004 AFLAC All-American High School Baseball Classic.
Ranked second in the nation as a freshman for Arizona State University by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, he was named Pac-10 Conference Freshman of the Year, as he became the first freshman ever to lead the conference in runs batted in. He hit.353 with a.605 slugging percentage in college, threw a fastball that reached 94 miles per hour, and was a two-time All-American and a three-time All-Pac-10 selection.
Davis was drafted 18th overall in the first round of the 2008 MLB draft. In the minor leagues, he batted.288 with a.371 on-base percentage, and a.467 slugging percentage, and was the Mets 2009 Organizational Player of the Year.
The Mets called him up to the majors in April 2010. His 11 home runs prior to the All-Star break that season tied him for the second-most ever by a Mets rookie. He set the Mets rookie record for total bases, and tied the Mets rookie records for bases on balls and extra-base hits. He was named the first baseman on Baseball Americas 2010 All-Rookie Team. During a 2011 season shortened by an ankle injury, Davis batted.302. In 2012, he batted.227, but his 32 home runs were 5th-best in the National League. In 2013, he split his time between the Mets and AAA Las Vegas. He was traded to the Pirates in April 2014, and traded to the Athletics after the season. He played for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Early years
Davis was born in Edina, Minnesota, to Millie Davis and Ron Davis. His father was a major league pitcher who pitched in 481 games in the majors in his 11-year career. His father was a power relief pitcher, and an American League All-Star in 1981. He pitched from 1978 to 1988, starting with the New York Yankees. He pitched for the Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants. His father retired at the age of 32 in 1988, however, so Ike remembers more from old-timers' games, such as the one where, at age 12, he met Derek Jeter. He and his father are the 197th father-son combination to have both played in the major leagues.Davis is Jewish through his mother. His mother, the youngest daughter of Bernard and Harriet Gollinger, is Jewish, and his father is Baptist. Davis embraces both sides of his family’s ancestry. His mother's family was from Lithuania and immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. Of those who stayed behind, most of her family were murdered in The Holocaust during World War II.
Davis had a great aunt on his mother’s side who was a Holocaust survivor. Davis said: "She was the one who knew everything that happened. She was able to come to the United States, and she brought the story with her." Davis' paternal grandfather was an American paratrooper in the United States Army who landed in France on D-Day in 1944. He later helped liberate one of the Nazi concentration camps.
Davis' given names are Isaac and Benjamin. Davis does not practice Judaism and is non-religious, but he stated: "I am really proud of my Jewish heritage." He describes himself as "culturally Jewish." He reflected: "It's funny about Judaism; It doesn’t matter if you're ultra-religious or not, as long as you know that it's in you or you're a part of it, everyone accepts you." He often uses the Jewish greeting "shalom." Davis says: "I'm glad Jewish kids get to see they can grow up to be professional baseball players."
As a youth, he attended a five-day baseball fundamentals camp that his father continues to run for children ages 5–14. His father was also his little league coach until Davis was 14.
His father said:
People would say Ike was good because his dad was a player. But it's not that easy.... I can tell Ike how to swing, I can teach him to pitch, the game of baseball, but he's the only one to make it to the big leagues. You can't teach heart and soul. That's what it takes to play in the game.
High school
Davis attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he won three state titles. His father would throw him batting practice. He hit.559 as a sophomore, the school record, ahead of Paul Konerko's.558 in 1994. He also hit a school-record 23 doubles, breaking Konerko's record of 18. He followed that up by batting.425 as a junior, and.450 as a senior. As a senior, he had a 92–93 mph fastball, to complement his changeup and slider. He was ranked 12th in the country by Baseball America, and was a high school All-American.In 2003, he also pitched for the U.S.A. Youth National Team in international play. They won the gold medal in the International Baseball Federation XI "AA" World Youth Championships in Taiwan. In 2004, he played on the U.S.A. Junior National Team. In his two seasons playing for Team U.S.A., he batted.404.
In 2004, he was one of 40 players from across the country chosen to play in the AFLAC All-American High School Baseball Classic. He won the MVP Award for the game, hitting the go-ahead home run for his team. The following year, he was MVP in the all star 2005 High School American Game.
By November 2004, the 17-year-old Davis was already and 194 pounds. In 2005, despite his having indicated he was going to go to college, he was drafted in the 19th round by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He elected not to sign.
Davis graduated from high school with a.447 batting average in 320 at bats, with 48 doubles, 12 home runs, and 106 runs batted in . As a pitcher he was a perfect 23–0, with a 1.85 ERA, 14 saves, and 213 strikeouts in 174 innings. His teams were 95–8 over his sophomore, junior, and senior years.
College baseball career
Freshman year (2006)
Davis chose to attend Arizona State University. In October 2005, he was ranked the # 2 freshman in the nation by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball. He pitched, was the designated hitter, and played first base and corner outfield. In March 2006, he was named a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week, Pac-10 Conference Player of the Week, and College Baseball Foundation National Honor Roll Player of the Week for a week in which he batted.588 and drove in 13 runs, in four games.In 2006, with 65 RBIs in 227 at bats he became the first freshman ever to lead the Pac-10 in runs batted in during the regular season, and set the ASU freshman RBI record. Batting clean-up, he hit.329 with 79 hits, 23 doubles, and a.542 slugging percentage in 58 games. His 9 home runs tied him with Bob Horner for third all-time by a Sun Devil freshman, 2 behind Barry Bonds. He was also the team's opening day starter, and pitched a team-high 12 starts. He was named a Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, Rivals.com First-Team Freshman All-American, Baseball America Second-Team Freshman All-American, Jewish Sports Review First-Team All-American, American Baseball Coaches Association First-Team All-West Region, Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, and a member of the First-Team All-Pac-10.
Davis spent the first part of the summer of 2006 with Team USA. He then played in 22 games for the Anchorage Bucs of the Alaska Baseball League, and was named the # 10 prospect in the league by Baseball America.
Sophomore year (2007)
Davis demonstrated his versatility in an April 2007 game. He came to the mound with his team trailing 5–4, ended the inning by striking out a batter, and in the next half-inning stole home as the lead runner in a triple steal. For his sophomore season, he primarily played right field and pitched as a middle reliever. He again received First-Team All-Pac-10 honors, and was named a Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger Third Team All-American, a National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Third-Team All-American, and again a Jewish Sports Review First-Team All-American.In the summer of 2007, he played for the Wareham Gatemen in the Cape Cod League. A bone spur in his left wrist required surgery over the summer.
Junior year (2008)
He was named a pre-season 2008 All-Pac-10 outfielder by Rivals.com, and a pre-season Third-Team All-American by both the NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball. In consecutive weeks in March 2008 he was named both the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week and the Pac-10 Conference Player of the Week. In the first week he hit.450 and struck out all four batters he faced. In the second week he batted.529 with a 1.412 slugging percentage, and recorded five outs from the mound, four by strikeout, without giving up a hit. He was the first Sun Devil to win the Pac-10-award in consecutive weeks since Travis Buck in 2004. The College Baseball Foundation named him to its National All-Star Lineup.For his junior season, Davis hit.385, with a.457 on-base percentage and a.742 slugging percentage. He hit 23 doubles, 16 home runs, and 76 RBIs in 213 at bats over 52 games, while missing 10 games with a rib oblique muscle strain. He was 4–1 as a pitcher, with a 2.25 ERA, 4 saves, 20 strikeouts in 24 innings against 4 walks, and hit 94 miles per hour on the radar gun. He also threw out four runners from right field. He was named ASU On Deck Circle Most Valuable Player; prior winners included Dustin Pedroia, Willie Bloomquist, Paul Lo Duca, and Barry Bonds. He received First-Team All-Pac-10 honors for the third straight year. He was also named a First Team All-American by Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, the NCBWA, Rivals.com, and the ABCA. Four of his Sun Devils teammates that season went on to play in the major leagues: Brett Wallace, Jake Elmore, Jason Kipnis, and Mike Leake.
He hit.353 in his college career, with a.605 slugging percentage. He totaled 159 runs, 244 hits, 33 homers, 69 doubles, and 202 RBIs. On the mound, he ended his college career as the Sun Devils closer, and totaled a 7–5 mark with 4 saves and 78 strikeouts in his career. Davis was also a part of two Pac-10 Championship teams, and went to the College World Series in 2007. He was named to the ASU All-Decade team.
Scouts felt he was at his best as a batter when he used the whole field. They noted that his bat speed allowed him to wait on pitches and drive them the other way, and that he was quick enough to catch up to good fastballs. Mark Schlereth of ESPN observed: "The bigger the game, the better he plays."