Davey Johnson, who made the final out of the 1969 World Series as the Mets won their first world championship and who guided the franchise to its second and most recent World Series title as the team’s manager 17 seasons later, died on Friday, per team historian Jay Horwitz.
He was 82.
A second baseman with the Orioles on that October afternoon, Johnson launched a fly ball just in front of the warning track in left field where a genuflecting Cleon Jones made the catch, setting off a raucous celebration that saw thousands of Mets fans stream onto what would become a ravaged Shea Stadium field.
After a successful 13-year major league playing career, Johnson managed the Mets from 1984-90.
He also managed the Reds, Orioles, Dodgers and Nationals during a 17-season managerial career, compiling a record of 1,372-1,071.
He was twice named manager of the year, winning the honor in the American League with the Orioles in 1997 and in 2012 with the National League’s Nationals.
Johnson was the manager of the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in Tidewater, Va., when he was tapped to helm the big league club in 1984, taking over a team that had won just 68 games the previous season.
The 1984 Mets would go on to win 90 games, no doubt helped immeasurably by the arrival of 19-year-old Dwight Gooden, who would win 17 games in his rookie season and the continued blossoming of 22-year-old Darryl Strawberry.
It would be the first of five consecutive seasons of 90 or more wins for the Mets under Johnson as he became the only manager in major league history to win 90 or more games in each of his first five seasons.
Johnson’s Mets twice won 100 games or more (1986, 1988).
But, with only the division winners qualifying for the playoffs before the wild-card era, they would only reach the postseason twice, a track record that led to those teams — which one writer labeled a “traveling frat party” — being viewed as underachievers and the laissez-faire Johnson as an ineffective motivator.
“I treated my players like men,” he once said. “As long as they won for me on the field, I didn’t give a flying f–k what they did otherwise.”
That philosophy didn’t sit all that well with Mets management, especially veteran general manager Frank Cashen. After an 87-win season in 1989 followed by a 20-22 start in 1990, Johnson was fired.
At the time of his dismissal, Johnson had won more games than any manager in baseball over the previous six years and his teams had never finished lower than second in their division, the NL East.
“I felt our ballclub was underachieving,” said Cashen, who replaced Johnson with third-base coach Bud Harrelson. “The time came to head in a new direction.”
David Allen Johnson was born Jan. 30, 1943, in Orlando, Fla.
His father, Frederick, was a highly decorated World War II tank commander, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
His dad left for the war just as Davey was born and spent time in an Italian prisoner of war camp.
He later escaped, and lived with the Italian resistance.
Davey never learned of his father’s wartime exploits until he became an adult.
As the child of an Army officer, Johnson lived on Army bases in Germany, Georgia, Texas and Wyoming.
The family eventually settled in San Antonio, Texas, where Johnson attracted the attention of baseball scouts.
Johnson went to Texas A&M, where he played shortstop for “the greatest coach in the world, Tom Chandler, a real classic who taught me real respect for the game, and gave me an opportunity to show what I could do.”
After two years in College Station, where he also played guard for the Aggies basketball team, Johnson signed with the Orioles.
He reached the majors with Baltimore in 1965 as a backup infielder but was sent back to Triple-A after hitting just .170 in 47 at-bats.
Johnson was given the second-base job the following season and the Orioles won the World Series, sweeping the Dodgers.
Johnson had the distinction of getting the final hit off Sandy Koufax — a single in Game 3. Koufax retired following that season.
With Johnson the Orioles would appear in four World Series, winning in 1966 and ’70 and losing in ’69 and ’71.
His best season with the Orioles came in 1970 when he batted .282 with 18 home runs and 72 runs batted in while helping the Orioles to a third straight AL pennant.
He was traded to the Braves in 1973 and immediately made an impression on his new league.
After never hitting more than 18 home runs in a season with the Orioles, Johnson joined the Braves and hit 43 homers.
Johnson, Henry Aaron (40) and Darrell Evans (41) became the first trio of teammates to each hit 40 or more homers in a season.
“It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in baseball,” Johnson said of the trade, “and the big reason was joining Aaron. He helped make me a better hitter.”
He spent two full seasons with the Braves and, after losing his starting job and appearing in just one game in 1975, abruptly left to play in Japan.
After a falling out with his manager there, Johnson resurfaced in the majors with the Phillies in 1977 and was traded to the Cubs that August.
He retired following that season.
A four-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner during his playing career, Johnson finished with a lifetime batting average of .261.
The holder of a mathematics degree from Trinity College in San Antonio, Johnson also had his real estate license and was a licensed pilot and certified scuba instructor.
He had become interested in computers while playing for the Orioles and took graduate courses in computer science at Johns Hopkins University.
He was among the game’s first managers to rely on computers for information.
After leaving the Mets, Johnson managed the Reds, where he clashed with controversial owner Marge Schott, and the Orioles where he warred with owner Peter Angelos.
In Baltimore, Johnson navigated the shifting of future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken from shortstop to third base, an idea Ripken initially resisted.
He also managed the Dodgers and the Nationals, guiding Washington to the best record in baseball in 2012 (98-64) when they lost to the Cardinals in the NL Division Series.
His team won 84 games the following year, missed the playoffs and Johnson announced his retirement at the end of the season.
As a manager, Johnson’s .562 winning percentage is 10th all time among managers with at least 1,000 victories.
Johnson and Baltimore’s Earl Weaver, his manager for almost all his time with the Orioles, are the only men on that list who began their managerial careers after 1960.
Johnson is survived by his wife, Susan.
A daughter, Andrea, died in 2005.
“I’m still flabbergasted we lost,” Johnson said of that 1969 World Series. “That destiny made all sorts of funky things happen. Gusts of wind blowing balls back to their outfielders, [Ron] Swoboda’s diving catch, Al Weis hitting a home run. Our winning just wasn’t meant to be.”
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