Herman Thomas Davis Jr. (March 21, 1939 – April 3, 2022) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a left fielder and third baseman from 1959 to 1976 for ten different teams, most prominently for the Los Angeles Dodgers where he was a two-time National League batting champion and was a member of the 1963 World Series winning team. During an 18-year baseball career, Davis batted .294 with 153 home runs, 2,121 hits and 1,052 runs batted in. He was also a talented pinch hitter, batting 62 of 202 (.307) in his career. In 1962, he finished third in the MVP voting after leading the major leagues in batting average, hits and runs batted in. Davis' 153 RBIs in that season broke Roy Campanella's team record of 142 in 1953 and remains the franchise record; his 230 hits are the team record for a right-handed batter (second most in franchise history behind only Babe Herman's 241 in 1930), and his .346 average was the highest by a Dodgers right-handed hitter in the 20th century until it was broken by Mike Piazza in 1997 with .362. Baseball career Early career Davis was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in the borough's Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood. He attended Boys High School in Brooklyn, where he was a basketball teammate of future Basketball Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens and played for coach Mickey Fisher, as well as a long jumper on the school's track and field team with record breaker Bernard Lowther. In 1956, he was considering signing with the New York Yankees, but received a phone call from Jackie Robinson who convinced him to sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers instead. In his minor league career, he won batting titles in the Midwest League and Pacific Coast League. The Dodger years By the time Davis made the majors, the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles; he debuted with a pinch-hitting appearance on September 22, 1959. He batted .276 in his 1960 rookie season, and .278 in 1961, before enjoying his breakout year in 1962 as the team moved into the new Dodger Stadium. His .346 batting average edged out Frank Robinson's .342 for the National League batting crown, and his 230 hits and 153 RBIs led the major leagues. His 230 hits in 1962 were the most in a season by any player between 1937