Ike Davis
MLB (retired)
1B
Full Name Isaac Benjamin Davis Date of Birth 03/22/1987 Age 37 Birthplace Edina, MN Religion Jewish Height 6'4 Weight 215 Bats/Throws L/L
Drafted Mets
(06/2008)Draft Round 1 Overall Pick 18 MLB Debut 04/19/2010 Final MLB Game: 06/24/2016
Career highlights (through 2014)
- Selected by the New York Mets in the 1st round of the 2008 amateur draft (18th overall pick)
- Hit .364 in 10 games for the “AAA” Buffalo Bisons in 2010 before being promoted to majors
- Went 2-for-4 with one RBI in major-league debut with the New York Mets (2010)
- Finished 7th in voting for N.L. Rookie of the Year (2010)
- Had 3 HRs in a game (7/28/2012)
MLB career bests, by statistic (full seasons only)
- AVG: .264 (2010)
- 2B: 33 (2010)
- 3B: 1 (2010)
- HR: 32 (2012)
- RBI: 90 (2012)
- BB: 72 (2010)
- OBP: .351 (2010)
- SLG: .462 (2012)
- OPS: .791 (2010)
- SB: 4 (2013)
- Longest hitting streak: 11 games (2011)
- Intentional walks: 6 (2010)
- Wins Above Replacement: 3.3 (2010) — baseball-reference.com
- At bats per home run: 16.2 (2012) — espn.com
2014 highlights
- Three of his 11 HRs for the Mets and Pirates were as a pinch hitter
- Pounded a pinch-hit, grand-slam home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Mets a walk-off win over the Reds (4/5/2014)
- Two weeks later, hit a go-ahead, grand-slam home run for his new team, the Pirates (4/21/2014)
- Smacked a 442-foot, pinch-hit, go-ahead home run on a Tuesday, and a 447-foot blast the next day (8/26/2014 and 8/27/2014)
2013 highlights
- Pacific Coast League (AAA) Player of the Week, June 17-23
- Hit 2 HRs in a 7-1 win over the Washington Nationals, the sixth time in his career he’s had two or more HRs in a game
2012 highlights
- In only his second full season in the Majors, Davis led the New York Mets with 32 HRs and was second on the club with 90 RBIs
- Went 4-for-4 with 3 HRs in a 6-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on 7/28/2012
- His 32 HRs ranked 5th in the N.L., and his at-bats per HR ratio ranked 3rd (16.2)
- After a dismal March/April (.185) and May (.154), Davis rebounded to finish the season hitting .227
2011 highlights
- Davis was hitting .302 and leading the New York Mets in HRs (7) and RBIs (25) when he suffered a season-ending injury on 5/10/2011. One of the players who replaced him at 1B late in the season was Jewish rookie Josh Satin
- Committed just one error in the 36 games he played
2010 highlights
- Finished 7th in voting for N.L. Rookie of the Year
- Became third rookie in Met history to hit 10 homers before the All-Star break
- Had two home runs and three RBIs against the San Francisco Giants, his first multi-home game in the majors (7/17/2010)
- Went 4-for-4 with two doubles, three runs scored and one RBI in 6-1 victory over the Florida Marlins (6/5/2010)
- 5th among first basemen in errors, N.L. (9/tie)
2009 highlights (minor leagues)
- Hit a combined .298 with 20 home runs and 31 doubles for the “A+” St. Lucie Mets and “AA” Binghamton Mets
- One of 22 players named to the Arizona Fall League’s All-Prospect Team
- Named the New York Mets’ “Organizational Player of the Year”
On being Jewish
- Davis’ mother, Millie Gollinger, is Jewish. He was named “Isaac” after her paternal grandfather. (New Haven Register; April 24, 2010)
- Davis: “I never really was too much into religion, because my Dad’s a Baptist (former MLB pitcher Ron Davis), my Mom’s Jewish, and so they never really put a certain religion, or forced us to do anything. So really, I just got a good perspective of both sides, of Christianity and Judaism…Every year, we kind of do a half-celebration of Chanukah and a half-celebration of, more a celebration of Christmas, just cuz it’s a bigger, you know, more widely used. But we do light the candles every year…” (The Jewish Channel; July 15, 2010)
- “Davis said a large portion of his family on his mother’s side, which was from Lithuania, perished in the Holocaust. He learned about his family’s history by doing family trees as part of school projects. He said his great aunt on his mother’s side was a Holocaust survivor who came to the United States, and it was initially through her that the family story has been preserved. “She was the one who knew everything that happened,” he said. “She was able to come to the United States and she brought the story with her.” (New York Times; April 22, 2010)
- Davis: “I’ve always been really interested with my Jewish side of the family…I was interested in the Holocaust, and I had a lot of family members that never made it to the United States, or never really got to live past the Holocaust because a lot of them were killed during it. But I did have a great-great-aunt that made it through Auschwitz…and I have a videotape of her telling her story.” (The Jewish Channel; July 15, 2010)
- Davis: “I’m proud to have Jewish blood in me. I think it’s made me better, because I’m kind of a diverse guy.” (The Jewish Channel; July 15, 2010)
For more information
- Baseball-Reference page
- Jewish Baseball Museum bio
- Baseball cards
