Chili's Dangerous Cardboard Finale
Maybe the missing pieces ended up in Cooperstown?
2000 Topps Chili Davis (#42) - Card of the Day
In four appearances on the Hall of Fame ballot through 2024, Torii Hunter has struggled to just keep his name in the running, let alone actually land on a plaque in Cooperstown. Never topping 10% of the vote, Hunter seems more likely to fall below 5% — and off the ballot — than to ever gain election.
This despite the fact that his case is as strong or better than some already enshrined. With a batting line of .277, 2452 hits, 353 HR, 1391 RBI, 498 doubles, and 195 stolen bases, and with nine Gold Gloves in centerfield, Hunter racked up 50.7 WAR (Baseball Reference).
By measure of JAWS, he is the 35th best CF of all time, which puts him above a few Hall of Famers, though well behind such fellow outsiders as Fred Lynn and Dale Murphy.
Chili Davis, meanwhile, lands 70th on that list, but he is the most similar batter to Hunter in major league history, according to Baseball Reference’s Similarity Score. The likeness is there for the world to see in Davis’ own batting line: .273, 2380 hits, 350 HR, 1372 RBI, 424 doubles, 142 stolen bases.
Hunter has the advantage across the board, but it’s not a huge one in most cases. Where he does have the jump on Davis is in the field, as Chili spent more time in the outfield corners than in center and nearly as much time at DH as in the grass.
Davis’s stock in trade was hitting, and teams were eager to have him in their lineup, even as they made sure — especially later in his career — that his glove gathered dust. In his 19-year career, Davis played for five different big league teams, including two separate stints with the Angels.
His first team change saw him sign with the 1991 Twins in January that year after a long run with the Giants. A World Series title followed that October.
His last team change saw him sign with the Yankees in December 1997. They released him two years later. In between, the Bombers won two World Series.
Not a bad pair of bookends to Davis’s DH career, huh?
Davis was done in the majors after parting ways with the Yankees, though. For most players of the era, retirement meant their baseball card career was done, too. But Chili was still technically active as December rolled around, late enough that Topps and the other companies already had him in their 2000 checklists.
Was it unreasonable to think that a slugger who tagged 19 homers at age 39 would come back for more at age 40? Maybe not, but Davis had already been leaning toward retirement, and he decided to hang up his spikes before the new millennium dawned.
Five years later, he appeared on his only Hall of Fame ballot, picking up just three votes. But hey, that doesn’t stop us from enjoying the shiv-flashing career-capper baseball card of one of the most dangerous batters of his generation decades later.
And we can thank Torii Hunter’s ballot tenacity for giving us the chance.