No. 44 on No. 44: Reds legend Eric Davis watches prospect Elly De La Cruz and as hope he is KEEP MAKING HISTORY as a ELECTRIC
Rick Stowe, the manager of the Reds clubhouse, was pleased with himself when reporters first entered the facility this spring. He smiled and gestured to the über-prospect Elly De La Cruz’s locker, where a jersey was hanging. The No. 44 was seated beneath the arched “De La Cruz” on the rear.
“It went pretty well, didn’t it?” Stowe remarked.
When he divulges a player’s number, Stowe, who oversees numbers, is frequently the object of lighthearted taunts (though some ex-players have been less civil in their criticism). Finding an available number can be challenging at times because the Reds have 11 retired numbers. The Reds have three single numbers and five digits in the teens that are retired, which makes it more challenging. Taylor Motter, No. 94, was the first player in the Reds’ regular season history to wear a number in the 90s at one point last season.
While it isn’t retired, the No. 44 has a rich history. It was previously owned by Tanner Rainey, Cody Reed, Kyle Waldrop, Mike Leake, Adam Dunn, Mike Cameron, John Roper, Frank Viola, Pat Darcy, and Charlie Leibrandt. Aristides Aquino was the last owner of it. However, retired or not, the number 44 will always be connected to one guy in the eyes of Reds fans, particularly those of a certain age: Eric Davis.
60-year-old Davis played for the Reds from 1984 to 1991 and again in 1996 while wearing No. 44. Every night, when those highlights were hard to come by on a smartphone, Davis was the one to watch. No, Davis was a five-tool player with endless versatility in the area of baseball. If his 162-game run from June 11, 1986, to July 4, 1987, had taken place in a single calendar year, it would rank among the all-time best seasons. Davis hit.308/.406/.622 with 47 home runs, 149 runs, 123 RBI, and 98 stolen bases in those 162 games. Only twelve times was he caught stealing. In 1987, he was also the first to earn the Gold Glove award three years in a row.
Eric Davis sporting No. 44 during the 1990 World Series. (Otto Greule Jr / Getty Images)
Put another way, Eric Davis was like Superman in a baseball uniform. Above all else, he was cool. He was strong and swift. Even at sixty, Davis remains the coolest person in the Reds camp. His presence defies his years, or even generation.
De La Cruz grinned and said he liked the No. 44 hanging in his locker when asked about it.
Interpreter Jorge Merlos reported that previously in camp, De La Cruz stated, “It’s an honor to wear that number.” “We will do everything within our power to meet that threshold.”
The 21-year-old De La Cruz participated in his first Cactus League game of the season on Sunday, and he will play in many more. As the general manager’s special assistant since 2008, Davis, an Arizona native, has been following De La Cruz since the gangly shortstop was a 19-year-old in the Arizona Complex League—a long time before anyone outside the Reds organization knew who he was. Davis has witnessed what everyone else is seeing in De La Cruz: a baseball player of extraordinary potential who possesses a unique blend of size, strength, and speed. Do you recognize this?
On Monday, The Athletic met up with Davis and inquired about the most recent Reds No. 44. The dialogue that follows has been condensed and made clearer.
Elly, who was born in 2002—after your final game in 2001—said it was an honor to wear your number. it he is aware of your legacy—what does it mean?
He is aware of my legacy, though, as I have been here from the beginning. If you work for the Reds organization, it should be easy for you to discover my legacy if you are here. They do an excellent job of showcasing heirlooms and ensuring that incoming players are aware of the players that came before them. it’s a credit to our organization and my visibility; you receive it from him because I was able to observe him develop and become a buddy.
What have you observed about him from the time you saw him here in the Arizona Complex League?
What have I not seen, I wonder? Correct? His skills are unparalleled. The things that you witness every day, like Elly’s true understanding of the game, smile, and passion, are, in my opinion, the most significant things that he accomplishes. And with someone so young, you just don’t see that in the game of today. His passion for his work surpasses whatever accolades he receives. And it’s what distinguishes a unique player.
I’ve discussed Elly with a number of gamers, and occasionally the conversation just revolves around Elly. When you ask about Elly, players like Matt McLain and Jose Torres, who are incredibly gifted and good players in their own right, smile. It appears that not even people who occupy his position harbor jealousy. That must be unique, right?
It’s just respect, nothing exceptional about that, in my opinion. Respecting someone does not make you less of a person. Therefore, showing respect to someone who plays the game differently than you or who might have something extra that you don’t is not very special. That does not lessen our regard for Matt, Torres, or any other individual. Thus, in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. To the person who doesn’t see skill, it is aberrant. Do you believe Joe Burrow is in awe of Patrick Mahomes based on the way he looks? No, but he is aware of his relative excellence. I shouldn’t be surprised by the way people speak. He played with the folks you are speaking with. Respect for what you see is what matters when you play with someone; it has nothing to do with their aura. The other teammates saw when he was in Dayton or Daytona, and McLain saw when he reached Double A. Thus, when you see Elly, his commitment and charisma really shine through more than his skill.
At the Reds camp for now, Davis serves as a special assistant. (Getty Images / J. Meric)
Although I have watched him play in the lesser leagues for ten or twelve games, others have told me how intelligent and skilled a player he is.
He brings a certain moxie to the game that only great players possess. I have no idea where Elly will be in fifteen years, therefore I won’t predict where she will be. With Elly, that is, assuming she doesn’t get hurt. The genuine excitement you witness on a daily basis is real. His movements are sincere. His arrogance is sincere. It’s just who he is; it’s not meant to be insulting to others. Furthermore, you ought to acknowledge your uniqueness when you possess it. Furthermore, those who argue that you should treat everyone equally have never encountered someone who is unique. You don’t treat people equally when they are radically different from you. It will take some time to comprehend that and everything that goes along with him. When that moment will come is unknown to me. It’s only a matter of time until everyone learns about this child’s values.
In 44, do you think he looks good?
In 44, he looks fantastic. It would be different for me had it been retired and they pulled it off the rafters and stuff like that. That’s when I would find it emotionally charged. It doesn’t worry me because they’ve given it to other people.
I didn’t think it’d bother you, I just thought maybe it was cool that here’s a guy who is tall, fast, power, arm …
It’s cool that you guys are asking about it because it’s me. But no one questioned me about Aquino’s wear date. It’s the player, not the number. If you ask Bernie (Bernie Stowe, Rick’s father, preceded his son in the Reds clubhouse) when he gave it to me, I didn’t ask for 44, he gave it to me. He saw something in me that would match that number. That’s what he told me, “I saw something in you that would match that number” with (Hank) Aaron, (Willie) McCovey, Reggie Jackson and some of the great people that wore that number. Bernie gave it to me for that reason. I was just trying to live up to that. Now my number is being moved on and hopefully he takes it and runs with it the way I took it and ran with it.
Rick was really proud of it. We like to tease Rick, but he was proud of that one. Of course, I’ve never seen a shortstop wear 44.
No. But you’ve never seen Elly. We’ve never had an Elly.
Who has?
(Oneil) Cruz is close.
What’s the difference between the two?
I think that Elly understands the game. Elly’s more dynamic. Elly is a switch hitter. Elly plays with a certain moxie. That’s not to say that Cruz doesn’t. But Cruz’s moxie is more deliberate. Elly’s moxie is more spontaneous. Cruz is more calculated to me, Elly is not.
It’s an easy cool.
When you’re cool from both sides of the plate, you’re pretty damn cool.
That’s something that reminds me of you — that easy cool, but also plays the game hard, smarter and better than anybody else. He knows it, but he’s not going to beat you over the head with it. But when Eric Davis steps to the plate …
(De La Cruz is) the same way. Even when he was in the (Arizona Complex League), you saw him walk and you just knew that it was different. And then when he got to Daytona, that’s different. And then when he got to Dayton and so on and so forth. As he keeps moving, that’s different. The only thing that I watch for Elly is if he’s going to be allowed to move different and allow his game to catch up to how he moves. Because when you have hype sometimes, people put the cart before the horse. And that thoroughbred has to learn how to run that race at the major-league level. … It’s crazy, because he has his own internal clock. Sometimes your internal clock doesn’t match someone else’s internal clock. They think you should be moving the way they think you should be moving, but Elly moves the way he knows how to move for 7 p.m., or whenever the game starts. He knows what to do to get himself ready. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t need help, but he’s got a pretty good idea of how his body works. He’s real meticulous about how his body works and what he needs to do to be ready. He’ll tell you he’s not tired. You’ve got to tell him he’s going to sit down, because he loves to play. We have to be careful with a lot of things with a guy like that.
Forgive me, but I was young and not in Cincinnati when you debuted, what were the expectations that were put on you?
I was compared to Willie Mays. Is there any other bigger expectation in baseball? It’s crazy because when you talk about me and my buddy (Darryl Strawberry), he came through and we came from the same place, I was compared to Willie Mays and he was compared to Ted Williams — two of the greatest players who ever played this game. To understand what that meant for me, I thought it was a disrespect to Willie Mays. Why? You’re a 19-year-old kid and you’re being compared to arguably the greatest player ever. That’s wrong. That’s unfair for me. But it’s a disgrace to him. That’s how I put the onus on Willie. If I do half of what Willie Mays did, I’m going to be a great player. It’s getting up in what you think a player should be. The joy is watching him become what he wants to be. Not what you want or what I want him to be.
Is it almost a blessing with Elly that we’ve maybe never seen anything like him, so who can we compare him to?
That’s a blessing and curse. The curse is not with him, it’s with other people. The blessing is for him. The curse is for everybody else. They want it now, they want it to be every day, you want this, why can’t he do that? That’s the curse. Other people create the curse. He doesn’t curse himself because he understands his blessings.