Red Sox Name Chili Davis PawSox Hitting Coach

The Boston Red Sox and the Pawtucket Red Sox are pleased to announce that Chili Davis will serve as the new PawSox hitting coach for the 2011 season. Davis will join new PawSox manager Arnie Beyeler along with returning pitching coach Rich Sauveur to complete the PawSox coaching staff.

Chili Davis, 50, had an outstanding 19-year career in the major leagues as an outfielder/DH batting .274 with 350 HR and 1372 RBI in 2436 big league games. Among switch-hitters, only Mickey Mantle (536), Eddie Murray (504), and Chipper Jones (436) have more career home runs than Davis' 350 HR. He is the first player born in Jamaica to appear in a major league game. He played for the San Francisco Giants (1981-87), California Angels (1988-90, 1993-96), Minnesota Twins (1991-92), Kansas City Royals (1997), and New York Yankees (1998-99). He was a three-time World Series Champion (Minnesota in 1991 and the Yankees in both 1998 & '99) and a three-time All-Star with the Giants in both 1984 & '86 and the Angels in 1994.

Charles Theodore "Chili" Davis was born in Kingston, Jamaica, grew up in Los Angeles, and was drafted by the Giants out of Dorsey High School in LA. He debuted with San Francisco in 1981 and in his first full season (1982) he hit .261 with 19 HR, 76 RBI and 24 SB while leading all NL outfielders in assists. In 1984 he finished 3rd in the NL in batting (.315). Chili signed with the Angels before the 1988 season. In 1990, hampered by chronic back problems, he moved into the DH role where he would primarily remain for the rest of his career.

In 1991 he led Minnesota in a host of categories including HR (29), RBI (93), 2B (34), BB (95), games played (153), slugging pct. (.507), and on base pct. (.385) as he helped the Twins go from last-place the previous year to the AL West title and eventually the '91 World Series championship (hitting 2 HR during Minnesota's dramatic victory over Atlanta).

Davis returned to the Angels as a free agent from 1993-96 and in the strike-shortened 1994 season he hit .311 with 26 HR & 84 RBI in only 108 games while making his third All-Star team, but first in the American League. In 1997 he was traded to Kansas City for RHP Mark Gubicza and in his one year with the Royals he belted a career-high 30 HR. Chili spent the final two seasons of his playing career with the Yankees winning his second and third World Series rings in 1998 & 1999 for Joe Torre before retiring after the '99 season (during which he hit .269 with 19 HR & 78 RBI).

Following his playing days, Davis was a hitting coach for the Australian National Baseball team for three years and also worked in the business world. Most recently he was hired in the fall of 2010 by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a hitting coach for their instructional league team in Glendale, Arizona.