'Bat Boy' Davies embraces small stature
Jake Crouse
@JakeCrouseMLBPITTSBURGH -- As amazing as it sounds, it still happens. Zach Davies will walk onto a Major League field, and he’ll get a strange look.
Who is that boy? Is he on the team?
At 6-feet tall and 155 pounds, Davies is not, nor has he ever been, the prototype of a Major Leaguer -- especially a pitcher. So it leads to confusion, even as recently as the Brewers’ current road trip.
“He got that dropped on him in Oakland -- the bat boy,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We told one of the security guards the guy at the end of the bench was pitching. And he said, ‘Who? The bat boy?’”
No, Davies is not the bat boy. Nor has he ever been, though he thought it would be cool to be one as a kid. But he’ll be “Bat Boy” during Players’ Weekend, which will be held across MLB on Aug. 23-25. Davies may even get to wear “BB” instead of his number 27 if he’s lucky.
The confusion doesn’t frustrate Davies. The former 26th-rounder in the 2011 Draft has always been the type to go out there and prove everyone wrong, and he hopes his story can empower other players who may not fit the bill.
“If you get a little bit embarrassed and react to it, it doesn’t do you any good,” Davies said. “So if you just accept it, you laugh about it, you have fun with it, it kind of becomes a part of you. And at the same time, it shows people that I’m a small guy and I’m still playing baseball at the highest level and it’s still possible.”
In case you were wondering, Counsell isn’t too upset that Davies chose “Bat Boy” over another year as “Couns” -- a nod to the similarities in look between manager and pitcher.
“He’s back to what he should be,” Counsell said.
The Brewers have no shortage of great names. Some are personal and meaningful, like “Bread emoji & Butter emoji” for Jeremy Jeffress, who opened JJ’s Bread & Butter food truck at Miller Park earlier this year to showcase his upbringing on Southern fried seafood. Lorenzo Cain, the Brewers’ Players’ Weekend Ambassador, will be “Three Kid$” for his three children and an excuse the speedy center fielder sometimes gives for taking it slower in his daily goings.
Other nicknames are great word associations. Eric Thames used his initials -- ET -- to come up with the movie-inspired name “Phone Home.” Adrian Houser doesn’t spell his last name quite the same as TV medical prodigy Doogie Howser, but he still decided on the name “Doogy.”
Davies prefers the classics, like Brandon Woodruff’s “Woody.”
“We actually went and saw the 'Toy Story 4' movie -- my wife and I with him and his wife -- and he had to take a picture with the big Woody cutout, which was perfect,” Davies said.
Both Davies and Counsell agree Players’ Weekend is something fun to participate in. In the slog of the season, especially for a postseason contender like the Brewers, it’s nice to remember that baseball is just a game, the players are people like us and everyone has their own flavor.
“It’s been a hit,” Counsell said. “The uniforms being different, letting the players’ shoes [be different] -- it’s a good thing. I would encourage more of it. I think it’s what fans want to see.
“It seems to put the players in a good mood that they’re able to express their minds a little bit, so something they think is humorous or funny or what they believe in, [I’m] all for it.”