Davey Johnson, who led the 1986 Mets to a World Championship, died Sept. 5 at the age of 82. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Bruce Weber.
Johnson, who also managed the , was a pretty good player, making a name for himself with the successful Baltimore Orioles of the mid-1960s to early 1970s before being traded to the Atlanta Braves where he clubbed 43 home runs in 1973, a record for second basemen until it was broken by’s 45 in 2021.He spent one year with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan as a teammate of Sadaharu Oh, but didn’t fare well, batting just .197 with 13 homers and 38 RBI in 91 games. He returned to MLB the following year and played for the Phillies and Cubs, playing his last game in the Majors in 1978.
A four-time All-Star, Johnson got his first big league managing job with the Mets in 1984, leading them to a 90-72 record, their best since the “miracle season” of 1969. The Mets ran away with things in 1986, winning 108 games and an exciting World Series. They also won 100 games two years later under his leadership although they faltered to the LA Dodgers in the 1988 LCS.
Johnson also managed the Cincinnati Reds, Orioles, Dodgers, and Washington Nationals, finishing with a career mark of 1,559-1,222. If you discount his first season with the Dodgers, a partial campaign, his teams never finished lower than third place.
He published two memoirs: Bats: The Man Behind the Miracle, with Peter Golenbock in 1996, and Davey Johnson: My Wild Ride in Baseball and Beyond with Erik Sherman in 2018.
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