Spud Davis

Virgil Lawrence Davis

Position: Catcher
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 1", Weight: 197 lb.

Born: December 20, 1904 in Birmingham, AL
High School: Gulf Coast Military Academy (Gulfport, MS)(All Transactions)
Debut: April 30, 1928
Teams (by GP): Phillies/Cardinals/Pirates/Reds 1928-1945

Final Game: September 5, 1945
Died: August 14, 1984 in Birmingham, AL
Buried: Elmwood Cemetery, Birmingham, AL
About biographical information

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Standard Fielding

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos	G	GS	CG	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	RF/9	RF/G	lgFld%	lgRF9	lgRFG	PB	WP	SB	CS	CS%	lgCS%	PO	Awards
1928	TOT	NL	23	C	51	44	36		207	155	46	6	7	.971		3.94	.979		4.42	5		31	24	44%	45%
1928	STL	NL	23	C	2	2	1		8	6	0	2	0	.750		3.00	.979		4.40	0		4	0	0%	45%
1928	PHI	NL	23	C	49	42	35		199	149	46	4	7	.980		3.98	.979		4.42	5		27	24	47%	45%
1929	PHI	NL	24	C	89	63	47		255	198	47	10	7	.961		2.75	.974		4.34	4		39	29	43%	42%
1930	PHI	NL	25	C	96	90	70		362	307	50	5	6	.986		3.72	.976		4.57	4		33	30	48%	44%
1931	PHI	NL	26	C	114	107	91		501	420	78	3	10	.994		4.37	.980		4.64	5		48	40	45%	46%
1932	PHI	NL	27	C	120	107	89		468	408	54	6	15	.987		3.85	.979		4.66	2		37	24	39%	45%
1933	PHI	NL	28	C	132	130	116		472	395	69	8	9	.983		3.52	.982		4.35	10		59	36	38%	46%		MVP-25
1934	STL	NL	29	C	94	89	75		507	459	42	6	7	.988		5.33	.985		4.85	2		27	17	39%	44%
1935	STL	NL	30	C	81	76	64		372	335	34	3	2	.992		4.56	.976		4.78	4		22	6	21%	44%
1935	STL	NL	30	1B	5	4	4		48	48	0	0	4	1.000		9.60	.989		9.92
1936	STL	NL	31	C	103	94	68		456	390	59	7	7	.985		4.36	.979		4.96	3		27	24	47%	47%
1936	STL	NL	31	3B	2	1	1		5	1	4	0	0	1.000		2.50	.948		2.65
1937	CIN	NL	32	C	59	52	48		347	300	40	7	3	.980		5.76	.980		5.25	1		28	19	40%	46%
1938	TOT	NL	33	C	74	67	48		301	260	34	7	6	.977		3.97	.979		4.85	5		20	15	43%	45%
1938	CIN	NL	33	C	11	9	8		52	43	7	2	1	.962		4.55	.979		4.85	3		4	3	43%	45%
1938	PHI	NL	33	C	63	58	40		249	217	27	5	5	.980		3.87	.979		4.85	2		16	12	43%	45%
1939	PHI	NL	34	C	85	66	42		300	260	40	0	1	1.000		3.53	.982		4.81	5		41	20	33%	46%
1940	PIT	NL	35	C	87	83	48		361	288	61	12	11	.967		4.01	.978		5.00	2		40	32	44%	45%
1941	PIT	NL	36	C	49	27	14		113	97	16	0	3	1.000		2.31	.983		5.04	2		4	7	64%	46%
1944	PIT	NL	39	C	35	20	11		89	76	10	3	3	.966		2.46	.979		4.56	0		7	4	36%	43%
1945	PIT	NL	40	C	13	4	3		31	26	4	1	0	.968		2.31	.978		4.57	0		4	2	33%	40%
	16 Seasons			C	1282	1119	870		5142	4374	684	84	97	.984		3.95	.980		4.72	54		467	329	41%	45%
	1 Season			1B	5	4	4		48	48	0	0	4	1.000		9.60	.989		9.92
	1 Season			3B	2	1	1		5	1	4	0	0	1.000		2.50	.948		2.65
	16 Seasons			TOT	1289	1124	875		5195	4423	688	84	101	.984		3.97	.980		4.73	54		467	329	41%	45%
Lg				Pos	G	GS	CG	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	RF/9	RF/G	lgFld%	lgRF9	lgRFG	PB	WP	SB	CS	CS%	lgCS%	PO	Awards

Note: Fielding stats are a combination of official records and RetroSheet records. Both are likely to have substantial errors and will not match perfectly.

View Complete Notes on Fielding Data

Leagues historically made no effort to balance team, league, and player fielding stats. Since 1990 or so, computers have made this feasible, but prior to that there are hundreds or thousands of discrepancies each year in games played (even whether a player played a position), putouts, assists, double plays and errors.

Pre-1948 SB & CS data for catchers is estimated from catcher assists, games started and opposition stolen bases.
From 1948 on SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. There are several hundred games without pbp from 1948 to 1973 and for those we may not have any data.
CG & GS come from the retrosheet data and should be complete and pretty accurate from 1918 on.
Innings played (like SB and CS) come from the retrosheet play-by-play data and should be considered mostly complete from 1948 to 1973 and complete from then on.
Stats (PO,A,G, etc) for LF-CF-RF positions (since 1918) is taken from play-by-play or box score data as available.
Stats (PO,A,G,etc) for C,P,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF positions is taken from the official reported totals and may have been corrected at various times since their publication.
For detailed information on which games retrosheet is missing play-by-play from 1948 to 1973, please see their most wanted games list
For detailed information on the availability of data on this site by year, see our data coverage page

Appearances

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	G	GS	Batting	Defense	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF	OF	DH	PH	PR
1928	PHI	NL	23	67	42	67	49	0	49	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	0
1928	STL	NL	23	2	2	2	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1929	PHI	NL	24	98	63	98	90	0	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	0
1930	PHI	NL	25	106	90	106	97	0	97	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0
1931	PHI	NL	26	120	107	120	114	0	114	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
1932	PHI	NL	27	125	107	125	120	0	120	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
1933	PHI	NL	28	141	130	141	132	0	132	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	0
1934	STL	NL	29	107	89	107	93	0	93	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	0
1935	STL	NL	30	102	80	102	86	0	81	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16	0
1936	STL	NL	31	112	95	112	105	0	103	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
1937	CIN	NL	32	76	52	76	59	0	59	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	17	0
1938	PHI	NL	33	70	58	70	63	0	63	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
1938	CIN	NL	33	12	9	12	11	0	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
1939	PHI	NL	34	87	66	87	85	0	85	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
1940	PIT	NL	35	99	83	99	87	0	87	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	0
1941	PIT	NL	36	57	27	57	49	0	49	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	0
1944	PIT	NL	39	54	20	54	35	0	35	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	19	0
1945	PIT	NL	40	23	4	23	14	0	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	0
	16 Seasons			1458	1124	1458	1291	0	1284	5	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	173	0
Lg				G	GS	Batting	Defense	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF	OF	DH	PH	PR

Appearances table is calculated solely from full RetroSheet play-by-play data available from 1973 on. A combination of RetroSheet (starting with the 1918 season) and non-RetroSheet data is used for other seasons.

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank · Glossary

Hall of Fame 1948 BBWAA ( 0.8%) 1949 BBWAA ( 0.7%)	MVP (yr lg (rk, shr)) 1933 NL (25, 1%) 0.01 Career Shares (1497th)	Def. Games as C s c a p y 1931 NL 114 (1st) 1932 NL 120 (3rd) 1933 NL 132 (3rd) Career 1,282 (55th)	Putouts as C s c a p y 1931 NL 420 (4th) 1932 NL 408 (5th) 1933 NL 395 (5th) 1934 NL 459 (3rd) 1936 NL 390 (5th)
Assists as C s c a p y 1930 NL 50 (4th) 1931 NL 78 (1st) 1933 NL 69 (4th) 1936 NL 59 (5th) 1940 NL 61 (5th)	Errors Committed as C s c a p y 1929 NL 10 (5th) 1933 NL 8 (3rd) 1940 NL 12 (2nd)	Passed Balls s c a p y 1928 NL 5 (5th) 1931 NL 5 (4th) 1933 NL 10 (2nd)	Stolen Bases Allowed as C s c a p y 1930 NL 33 (5th) 1931 NL 48 (1st) 1932 NL 37 (4th) 1933 NL 59 (1st) 1934 NL 27 (5th) 1936 NL 27 (5th) 1937 NL 28 (5th) 1939 NL 41 (2nd) 1940 NL 40 (1st)
Caught Stealing as C s c a p y 1930 NL 30 (4th) 1931 NL 40 (1st) 1933 NL 36 (3rd) 1940 NL 32 (2nd)	Caught Stealing %† s c a p y 1930 NL 47.6 (5th) 1936 NL 47.1 (5th) 1938 NL 42.9 (5th)	Range Factor/Game as C s c a p y 1931 NL 4.37 (5th) 1934 NL 5.33 (2nd) 1935 NL 4.56 (5th)	Fielding % as C s c a p y 1930 NL .986 (3rd) 1931 NL .994 (2nd) 1932 NL .987 (3rd) 1933 NL .983 (4th) 1934 NL .988 (3rd) 1935 NL .992 (1st) 1936 NL .985 (4th) 1939 NL 1.000 (1st)

Other Resources & Links

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Name and misspellings: Virgil Lawrence Spud Davis

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