It was announced that longtime Manager, Davey Johnson, passed away today.
He was 82 years old.
A very good player in his own right, Johnson was a slick-fielding Second Baseman who spent most of his career with the Baltimore Orioles, where he helped them win two World Series Championships (1966 & 1970). He was also a four-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner.
Johnson would become far more recognized as a Manager, most notably with the New York Mets, whom he took to a World Series Championship in 1986. He also skipped for the Cincinnati Reds, the Baltimore Orioles, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Washington Nationals, and had an overall record of 595-417.
We here at notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends, and family of Davey Johnson.
Hall of Fame season continues with the Baseball Hall’s announcement of the eight names on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee for Managers/Executives/Umpires. The Committee will meet on December 3 at the Winter Meetings in Nashville, and the results will be shared that night at 7:30 on MLB Tonight on the MLB Network.
To enter the Hall, the candidate must receive 75 percent of the 16-person group.
Here are the nominees:
Cito Gaston: Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays for 12 seasons, and he helmed to back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993. Making history as the first African-American Manager to win a World Series, Gaston has a career record of 894-837, and is a member of the Toronto Blue Jays Level of Excellence.
Davey Johnson: Johnson managed 17 seasons in the Majors, with his career-highlight leading the New York Mets to a 1986 World Series Championship. Johnson won two Manager of the Year Awards (1997 & 2012) and had a record of 1,372-1,071.
Jim Leyland: Leyland is a three-time Manager of the Year (1990, 1992 & 2006), and led the Florida Marlins to their improbable 1997 World Series title. With a career record of 1,769-1,728 and helmed the United States to victory in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Ed Montague: Montague served as an Umpire from 1974 to 2009 and was the Crew Chief in four World Series.
Hank Peters: Peters worked 42 years as a Baseball Executive, first becoming a General Manager with the Kansas City Athletics helping them build their dynasty. He would later serve as the GM in Baltimore, where he constructed their 1983 Championship squad. He later rebuilt the Cleveland Indians into a power in the 90s.
Lou Piniella: A 23-year veteran as a Manager, Piniella brought Cincinnati a World Series in 1990, and was a three-time Manager of the Year (1995, 2001 & 2008). He had a lifetime record of 1,835-1,712.
Joe West: West umpired from 1976 to 2021, officiating a record 43 years and 5,460 Games. He worked six World Series and ten League Championship Series.
Bill White: White was the first African American President of a League, having served in that capacity in the NL from 1989 to 1994.
You know that we will be paying attention December 3!
Davey Johnson arrived in Baltimore in 1965 as part of a wave of young talent that would eventually define the "Oriole Way." Though he would later be remembered as a tactical genius in the dugout, his playing career in Baltimore was marked by the same cerebral approach and defensive mastery. Alongside Brooks Robinson and Mark Belanger, Johnson formed one-third of perhaps the greatest defensive infield in baseball history.
Johnson’s impact was immediate; he finished third in the 1966 Rookie of the Year voting, proving to be the missing piece at second base for the franchise's first World Series title. While he wasn't the most feared power threat during his tenure in Baltimore, he was a master of the fundamentals. From 1969 to 1971, he secured three consecutive Gold Gloves, proving to be the vacuum that turned the Orioles' pitching staff into a juggernaut. His reliability was rewarded with three straight All-Star selections (1968–1970) during the peak of the dynasty.
Though his regular-season totals as an Oriole included 904 hits and 66 home runs, Johnson’s true value in the Project Diamond lab is measured in rings. He was a pivotal starter for the 1966 and 1970 World Series champions, famously hitting .313 with a .476 on-base percentage during the 1970 Fall Classic victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in 1997, Johnson’s legacy in Baltimore is two-fold: a gritty, All-Star second baseman who helped build a dynasty, and a brilliant strategist who returned to the dugout to lead the club back to the postseason in the 1990s.