Davey Johnson

Davey Johnson, the innovative, plain-spoken second baseman turned championship manager who led the rambunctious 1986 New York Mets to a World Series title and later guided the Washington Nationals to their first postseason berth, died Friday, September 5, 2025, in Sarasota, Florida. He was 82. His death followed a long illness, according to longtime Mets public relations executive Jay Horwitz.

Born David Allen Johnson on January 30, 1943, in Orlando, Florida, he excelled early, first at Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio and then as a mathematics student whose curiosity about numbers would shape a managerial career ahead of its time. As a player, Johnson won two World Series rings with the Baltimore Orioles (1966, 1970) and earned four All-Star selections and three Gold Gloves at second base. In a thunderous 1973 season with Atlanta, he belted 43 home runs, a record for his position that stood until 2021. He also spent two seasons with Japan's Yomiuri Giants before returning to the majors to close his playing career.

Johnson's imprint on baseball deepened in the dugout. Hired to manage the Mets before the 1984 season, he promised big and delivered bigger: New York won 90 or more games in each of his first five seasons and captured the 1986 World Series in seven unforgettable games over Boston. His 595 victories remain a franchise record. He later managed the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Washington Nationals, winning Manager of the Year honors in both leagues (1997, 2012) and finishing his big-league managerial career with a 1,372–1,071 record.

Long before "analytics" became an MLB buzzword, Johnson was blending baseball with data. With a math degree from Trinity University and coursework at Johns Hopkins, he experimented with computer-generated lineups as a player and carried those evidence-based instincts into managing. This approach helped the Mets cohere in 1986 and later pushed the Nationals to a 98-win season and the National League East title in 2012.

Beyond the majors, Johnson left his mark on the international game, managing Team USA to a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and leading the U.S. in the 2009 Baseball World Cup.

Colleagues remembered him as both a forward-thinking strategist and a players' manager who trusted people to be themselves-so long as they competed. "A world-class manager," Nationals owner Mark Lerner called him in a statement, while former GM Mike Rizzo said Johnson was "[o]ne of the great baseball minds of all-time. A forward thinker with an old-school soul."

By Legacy News Staff

(Image: AP Photo)