BALTIMORE — Earlier this year, Chris Davis was standing on a youth softball field in rural Texas — where he and his wife, Jill, have raised their three daughters, one of whom had a practice with her team on this particular day — when he received a call from Bill Stetka, the Orioles’ alumni director and team historian.
Davis was a bit preoccupied at the time, so he arranged to call Stetka back later that night. And when the 40-year-old former slugger did, he received some news he wasn’t anticipating.
The Orioles were inducting Davis into the O’s Hall of Fame as a member of their 2026 class.
“I didn’t expect it. I really didn’t. I thought that there were others that would go before me,” Davis said Friday afternoon inside the Camden Yards warehouse, where he attended this year’s Hall of Fame luncheon. “I was super relieved. I was super excited. It’s a huge honor. There are some legendary names in this Hall of Fame.”
Prior to Saturday’s game vs. the Phillies, Davis will be inducted and honored alongside former right-hander Storm Davis and the late Jim Russo, a former scout who received the club’s Herb Armstrong Award posthumously. The Orioles fans in attendance will surely greet the slugger once known as “Crush” with loud ovations.
But Davis wasn’t always so sure what his reception would be like if he returned to Baltimore.
In August 2024, Davis came back to Camden Yards to be part of Nick Markakis’ induction into the Orioles Hall of Fame. Each of Markakis’ former teammates in attendance were shown on the center-field videoboard, and when the camera panned to Davis, the fans cheered even louder.
“I was hopeful that they wouldn’t remember just the bad things. And this is such a great fan base,” Davis said. “It was kind of closure for me, to be honest with you.”
The story of Davis’ MLB career can be told in two parts. First, he was traded from the Rangers to the Orioles in July 2011, quickly becoming a breakout star. He slugged 197 home runs from 2012-16 — including a franchise-record 53 in ‘13 — and helped the O’s reach the postseason three times during that span.
After signing a seven-year, $161 million contract in January 2016 — which remains the largest deal in club history — Davis’ career didn’t go quite as well. He hit .169 with 28 homers in 249 games from 2018-20, then retired in ‘21.
“I think time heals all wounds. I know that’s a cliche statement, but when I retired, I was beat up — physically, mentally, emotionally,” Davis said. “And the club was in a much different place. They weren’t necessarily trying to win, they were trying to develop, trying to re-establish. It was a rebuild. And so when I left, it was really hard, because I felt like I let a lot of people down. …
“I felt like I needed that time to just reset and kind of regroup. And to be honest with you, the hard parts, they helped me appreciate the good times even more and they helped me appreciate the good years and when we were winning baseball games and going on playoff runs and all that stuff.”
There were plenty of good times for Davis and the Orioles during his impressive peak.
The most memorable moments of Davis’ career were his mammoth home runs. But one that ranks among his personal Top 3 was a pitching performance at Fenway Park.
On May 6, 2012, Davis tossed two scoreless innings to earn the win during Baltimore’s 9-6, 17-inning victory at Boston. It was such a wild game that both teams finished with position players on the mound, as Davis outdueled Red Sox outfielder Darnell McDonald.
But for Davis, his favorite memories were created by the people around him. He recalled having a live Maryland blue crab race in the bullpen to determine the Orioles’ fantasy football draft order one year. He also loved when Adam Jones would pie their teammates in the face during the on-field postgame interviews that aired on MASN.
Davis believes the chemistry in the clubhouse led to the success more so than the talent.
“We were really good friends. We cared about the game,” Davis said. “We cared about winning, and we cared about winning the Oriole Way, or the right way, doing things the right way. And I think that goes a long way, especially over the course of a big league season.”
Now, Davis has been immortalized in both Orioles history and in Baltimore — where he’s now always glad to return in order to remember all of those great years of his life.
“This is a blue-collar city, and I feel that way about those groups, and I think it just helped us be successful,” Davis said. “It’s just different here.”
