Davey Johnson, one of baseball’s notable iconoclasts, who played in four World Series in six seasons as a second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles and later managed the Mets to their remarkable Series victory in 1986, died on Friday in Sarasota, Fla. He was 82.
His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by Jay Horwitz, the vice president of alumni public relations for the Mets. He did not specify a cause.
Known as one of the game’s brainier and more self-assured characters, Johnson was an unusual figure in the world of baseball, with a wide range of off-the-field interests and achievements. A scratch golfer, a wealthy real estate investor, a licensed pilot, an accomplished fisherman and a scuba diving instructor, he graduated from Trinity University in Texas with a degree in mathematics, whose precepts he brought to the ballpark. He was among the first — if not the first — to recognize that computers could be utilized in marshaling baseball’s statistics to have an impact on team building, lineup construction and game strategy.
In an oft-reported story, Johnson took a computer class at Johns Hopkins University between the 1968 and 1969 seasons and, using his teammates’ batting statistics as his data, created a program entitled “Optimization of the Orioles Lineup.” The result suggested that if specific changes were made in the preferred lineup of the Orioles’ decidedly old-school manager, Earl Weaver, the offense would be stronger. This was precisely the kind of analysis that in the intervening years has made sabermetrics, as the study of baseball statistics has come to be known, a crucial element of administering a major league ball club.
“I showed Earl how a guy could have the same type of season two years in a row, the same stats, but we’d score 40 more runs if we spotted him in different situations,” Johnson recalled after the Mets hired him for his first managerial job, after the 1983 season. “Earl threw it into the wastebasket.”
As a player, Johnson had a creditable career. Long and lean — he was heavier when he managed — he was a smooth fielder who won two Gold Gloves as part of an Oriole infield that also included Brooks Robinson at third, Luis Aparicio and then Mark Belanger at shortstop and Boog Powell at first, and that is often cited as among the best ever. At the plate he was solid if unspectacular, batting .261 over all or part of 13 major league seasons, playing for four teams. He was an All-Star four times, thrice for the American League as an Oriole, and once for the National League, in 1973, after he was traded to the Atlanta Braves. His big-league career was interrupted when the Braves cut him early in 1975, and he played in Japan before returning to the National League for short stints with the Phillies and the Cubs.
A complete obituary will appear shortly.
Bruce Weber retired in 2016 after 27 years at The Times. During the last eight he was an obituary writer. He is at work on a biography of the novelist E.L. Doctorow.
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