MOOSIC — He was there on the other side to help the Florida Marlins pull off one of the biggest upsets in recent World Series history in 2003, one of the few world championships Hall of Famers Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter and the rest of the New York Yankees didn’t win.
Now Doug Davis will try to help the Yankees get back there.
The Bloomsburg native and resident was named last week and introduced Thursday as the fifth manager of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, who began playing under that name in 2013.
“It’s a big deal for me,” Davis, 57, said. “To be close to home is important for me.”
A former Central Columbia High School star, Davis played seven games in the major league as a third baseman and catcher with California Angels and Texas Rangers. He managed the Syracuse Chiefs in 2007 and 2008, was the minor league field coordinator for the Toronto Blue Jays after that and spent the past three years as an assistant coach with the RailRiders.
But his biggest moment came in 2003, when Davis worked as a bench coach for the Marlins team that upended the heavily favored Yankees in the World Series.
“That was just a tremendous experience for myself, for my family,” Davis said. “I was with the Marlins for five years. The whole experience was great. We felt we had a pretty good team from the start that year. They ended up being a World Championship team.
“Just to be able to watch a team of guys come through and jell and just start winning, you could sort of see things happen the way they did. It was very exciting playing against the Yankees. And now I’m managing in the Yankees organization.”
Getting there was almost as much of a longshot as his old Marlins team beating a Yankees dynasty that won four World Series titles in seven years.
For their last three Triple-A hires, the Yankees promoted Al Pedrique (in 2016), Bobby Mitchell (2018) and Jay Bell (last season) from leading teams in Double-A Trenton to manage the RailRiders.
This time, the Yankees turned to the Triple-A coaching staff when Bell left after last season to pursue major league opportunities.
“I think I was surprised a little bit,” Davis said. “When I looked at it, I wanted the opportunity to interview for this job. I think the timing was right. I’ve been here the past three years. I go back to the (former SWB Yankees/RailRiders manager) Dave Miley years, where the chemistry and continuity plays a little part in it, as well.
“I think I’m the right person for the job at this time.”
His main objective?
To get players ready to help the parent Yankees win a championship, of course.
“It was a great,” Davis said of last season’s parade of players who were called up from the RailRiders to the Yankees, “seeing a lot of the guys who hadn’t had a chance to get to the big leagues get to the big leagues for the first time.
“Our big goal is development of players.”
The plan is still out, though, on how he’ll go about doing that.
Davis said he’ll certainly lean on his past experience as the manager of Syracuse for help.
“I think it certainly will,” Davis said.
But some of his thinking may change, due to personnel or projections.
“I’ve always been pretty aggressive,” Davis said. “From an organizational standpoint, a lot of the decision-making will be based on how they (the Yankees) want to run this team. It’ll also be done with individual players. But strategies are important for all of the players.”