How Cincinnati Reds 'next Eric Davis' became MLB's best Reggie Sanders
· Yahoo Sports
Before he walked into the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse on his first day in the majors, Reggie Sanders saw superstar Eric Davis standing outside the door.
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“I’m like, ‘Whoa.’ I tried to act shy, like I didn’t see him,” Sanders said.
It didn’t work.
“I’m waiting on you,” Davis told him. “Listen, everybody knows that you’re coming, and excited that you’re here. But I want you to know before you get into that clubhouse that I’ve got your back.”
Davis was on the disabled list with issues lingering from the severe kidney injury suffered on a diving play during the World Series 10 months earlier. Ongoing friction with the organization would lead to the departure after that season of the best player on the team and fan favorite.
In fact, the new kid – a top-10 prospect in the sport – was viewed by many as the Reds future, if not the heir apparent.
“I said, ‘Don’t ever worry about me. You do you,’ “ Davis said, describing that conversation in the summer of 1991. “ ‘And try not to let people involve you with what I do.’
“And he created his own angle. He created his own narrative.”
Said Sanders: “That set the foundation and the stage. That meant a lot.”
Sanders and his elite combination of power and speed couldn’t avoid the inevitable comparisons to Davis that came from the media, fans, others in the game and even the team’s owner.
But he carved out his own legacy in a 17-year career, the first eight with a Reds team that rode the wave of his 1995 All-Star season into the playoffs, where they swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first round – still the last postseason series victory for the franchise.
And it’s a legacy that 35 years after that passing of the torch at Riverfront Stadium has earned its own pedestal in the franchise’s Hall of Fame.
“The moment is not about me. It’s all about the people that have paved the way for me to get there,” Sanders said, mentioning teammates, coaches and working-class parents, including a father who taught him the discipline of martial arts and a mother who inspired strength through the care of a brother with special needs that “continues to drive me.”
On the field, Sanders’ rare skillset was the stuff of scouts’ dreams, a shortstop with 30-30 ability that rose to No. 8 on Baseball America’s top 100 list on the eve of his debut season as he shifted to the outfield and began drawing the natural, unfair comparisons to Davis.
“We had a lot of similarities,” Davis said. “He was a shortstop. I was a shortstop. He went to centerfield. I went to centerfield. Power, speed, athleticism.
"He could do everything.”
Probably a lot better than many remember – whether because of the shadow of Davis in the aftermath of the 1990 championship, the shadows of bigger-market sports towns that Cincinnati occupies, his struggles in the 1995 playoffs or something else.
If Davis is in the conversation for greatest player who’s not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Sanders might be in the conversation for most underrated of his generation – one of only eight in history to hit 300 home runs and steal 300 bases.
“I don’t really vibe with the underrated stuff, in any sport. Because who rates them?” Davis said. “Reggie was a phenomenal talent.
“When you looked around the league, there wasn’t anybody more talented than Reggie.”
He hit 20 or more home runs eight times, 30 or more twice, and also stole 20 or more bases eight times, including 36 twice, and missed a 30-30 season in that big 1995 season by the margin of two home runs — and again in 1999 with the Padres by the margin of four homers.
He also turned himself into a reliable outfielder, especially right field and was a strong clubhouse presence.
“That was par for the course,” Reds legend and Baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin said. “Unless Deion (Sanders) or Junior was here, they didn’t really talk about Cincinnati that much nationally.
“I know he was appreciated in our clubhouse.”
Sanders laughs a little when he recalls meeting the owner – and her dog – that first day in the big leagues 35 years ago.
“Marge Schott came on the field and said, ‘You’re gonna be my next Eric Davis,’ “ Sanders said. Then she called her constant-companion Saint Bernard to her side. “She ripped a piece of hair off of Schottzie and then she put it in my back pocket for good luck.
“That’s a memory I’ll never forget.”
He never became her next Eric Davis – or anybody else’s. But he became his own multitalented, All-Star success story with 17 big-league seasons to prove it.
Whether or not the national media or fans around the world ever appreciated just how good he was.
“I think there’s probably some scenarios that played into that equation,” Sanders said. “But we can erase that right now.”
Reggie Sanders highlights
- One of only eight players in major league history with 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases.
- Hit the first home run in Great American Ball Park (March 31, 2003) − as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
- Finished fourth in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 1992.
- Earned lone All-Star selection and finished sixth in MVP voting in 1995, leading the Reds in bWAR (6.6), on-base percentage (.397), slugging percentage (.579), RBI (99) and missing a 30-30 season by two home runs.
- Three years after his last season with the Reds, won the World Series as a regular with the Arizona Diamondbacks, hitting .263 with a career-high 33 home runs.
Reggie Sanders statistics with Reds
805 games
.271 batting average
499 runs scored
431 RBI
152 doubles
33 triples
125 home runs
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Cincinnati Reds 'next Eric Davis' became MLB's best Reggie Sanders