In an exclusive interview with Andy Martino of the Daily News, former Mets first baseman Ike Davis still has a bad taste in his mouth from his time in New York.
Nearly a year removed from New York, he can now acknowledge several hard truths: His Valley Fever returned last spring, which was not previously known (Davis feels much better now, he says, but his 2014 Mets physical revealed the issue had once again appeared on his lungs). The ankle injury in 2011 altered the course of his career. And he was deeply hurt by a 2012 report suggesting that the Mets took issue with his nightlife habits.
“That’s really the only thing that I still have a dirty taste in my mouth about. Because everything else, you could see it in numbers. What, am I going to argue? I didn’t play well. But as far as calling me out for drinking problems, and being a bad influence — that was a joke. It’s ridiculous. But you can use it as a learning experience: You can’t trust people.”
The perception followed Davis when the Pirates acquired him last April, and his manager Clint Hurdle raised the issue.
“Clint asked me about it when I first got over there,” Davis says. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, but a guy made up an article.’
“He was like, ‘I heard you’ve had issues.” And I was like, ‘Issues with what? I’ve never gotten in trouble. I’ve never gotten in a fight. I’ve never done anything to anyone. Yeah, I’ve gone out and had beers and stuff, but who hasn’t done that?’ I don’t know why I got singled out.”
Davis, 28, is expected to get the majority of playing time in a first base platoon for the Oakland A’s this season. The former first round draft pick says he’s healthy now and is hoping to resurrect his career as a power-hitting middle of the order hitter.
