Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Tommy Davis (outfielder)" in English language version.
"My dad was Herman, my mom always called me Tommy.", says Davis.
Manager Pete Reiser took him under his wing and functioned as a father figure. He encouraged Tommy to be an aggressive hitter and base runner. He led the league that summer with a .356 average and set a league record with 68 stolen bases... "Pete Reiser made a man of me," said Davis.
Tommy said he sometimes felt like Jackie Robinson playing in Texas. "There were a lot of racial problems in Victoria. The more they yelled, the harder I played."
Davis had the distinction of being Jim Bouton's teammate in both Seattle and Houston and as such was a featured player in Ball Four. While Davis said he didn't like what Bouton wrote about Mickey Mantle, he and Bouton remain friends to this day. "He wrote nice about me," Davis said. "He liked me. I'm not mad at him and I never was."
He was tired of moving from team to team, though he conceded that his lackadaisical approach may have irked some of his employers. Even in his glory years with the Orioles, he was known to disappear from the dugout between at bats to read or grab a shave.
Davis stayed in baseball after retiring as a player. He worked for the Dodgers as a minor-league instructor and also as part of the community relations department... He served as the batting coach for the Seattle Mariners for one season in 1981 and eventually returned to the Dodgers – pressing the flesh out in the community and passing along batting tips to everyone from prospects to middle-aged fans at the team's fantasy camps.
He and his wife, Carol, raised their daughter in Greater Los Angeles. Davis also has three daughters and a son from his first marriage.
