Not long ago I read a book titled My Wild Ride in Baseball and Beyond, the autobiography of a man who spent nearly 50 years in MLB.

Davey Johnson never won an MVP and he’s not in Cooperstown, though he’s been close to election several times.

If he’s ever inducted it’ll have to be posthumously.

Davey Johnson passed away last week at the age of 82.

Born in Florida and successful all over the world, Davey Johnson probably isn’t many fans’ favorite player or manager, but damned if he didn’t check a series of boxes for me that makes him one of my favorites of all time.

Indulge me for a moment.

1. The aforementioned autobiography. It is in fact a wild ride, and is not his only book. In 1986 Johnson collaborated with the most legendary of all baseball collaborators, Peter Golenbock, to pen Bats, one of the most engrossing baseball books I’ve ever read. Because it’s actually about baseball.
2. As a player, Johnson was a World Champion for both the 1966 and 1970 Baltimore Orioles, two of my favorite teams of all time.
3. Those great Orioles teams won with incredible pitching and defense. In both 1969 and 1971 they had three Gold Glove winners (Johnson among them)… in their infield.
4. When Johnson went to the Braves in 1973 he hit 43 home runs. Forty-three. He had never hit more than 18 before. (No steroids in 1973.)
5. That ’73 Braves team had three players hit 40 home runs. First time that ever happened.
6. “After” his MLB career he played in Japan when it was exceedingly rare for Americans to do so. And after two seasons in Japan he came back to MLB.
7. When his playing days really were over and he took his talents to the manager’s office, he was a pioneer of using what would later be called “sabermetrics” or “Moneyball” stats to evaluate players and make in-game decisions. (He held a degree in mathematics and dug into stats during his days as a player too.)
8. Not only was he the manager of the World Series-winning ’86 Mets, one of the greatest and most fun teams of all time, he won minor league championships in 1981 (Double-A Jackson) and 1983 (Triple-A Tidewater) as well while developing those future major leaguers.
9. He came to D.C. even before I did, taking a front office role in 2006 and accepting the manager’s position starting in 2011. He brought the team to a division title in 2012 and was the manager for the first postseason baseball game in Washington since 1933. I was there for it. (The 2012 one, not 1933.)
10. He was the manager for the Orioles in the infamous “Jeffrey Maier game,” won by the Yankees thanks in part to a fan-assisted home run. Often lost in the story is that on the play in question… Johnson was ejected for arguing.

Awesome.

RIP, Davey Johnson.