A Ben Davis Sighting

I told you I had a baseball-related followup to my post on the Gay Community Night at the Riversharks game last week, and here it is: it seems that former major leaguer Ben Davis is a Riversharks player. He's a local boy (well, not so much a boy as he's 33 now), born in West Chester and a graduate of Malvern Prep, and was considered such a prospect as a catcher that he was the second pick overall in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft by the San Diego Padres. But he never turned into a star, and is mostly known for breaking an unwritten rule of baseball by bunting for a hit to ruin a Curt Schilling perfect game. (That's something I completely support, by the way, because the score was only 2-0 at the time and because Schilling is obnoxious.)

Now Davis, who hasn't been in a major league game since 2004, is no longer catching. He's spent the last two years trying to make a comeback as a pitcher. In last week's game he gave up 7 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks (plus the hit batter from the video I posted) in 3 2/3 innings. I had no idea he was the starting pitcher that night until I read the game recap at the Riversharks' website a little while ago. This year Davis is 2-5 with a 6.61 ERA. Opposing hitters are batting .337 against him with an on-base percentage of .390. Ouch.