Crush groove: Chris Davis on historic run for Orioles

Alejandro Zúñiga Sacks | USA TODAY Sports

BALTIMORE - The murmur of the crowd at Camden Yards dissipates every time he steps to the plate. Chris Davis -- known as the "Hulk" or "Crush" -- is a soft-spoken slugger who suddenly has commanded the attention of fans within and well beyond his home field.

Sunday night, the Baltimore Orioles first baseman slugged his major league-leading 31st home run, which also boosted his MLB-best totals in slugging percentage (.728) and total bases (217). He also boasted a .332 batting average with a .406 on-base percentage and 25 doubles, all top-five marks. Somehow, the powerful lefty sees room for improvement.

"I feel like I've been dragging lately," he joked. "I was hoping I could step it up a little in these next few months."

Davis is poised for a historic run: He's on pace for 59 home runs, which would shatter Baltimore's franchise record of 50 held by Brady Anderson, and he's the first player to reach 30 homers and 25 doubles by the end of June, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Second only to Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera in American League All-Star voting, Davis is nearly a lock to start the game.

That's a stunning turnabout for a player whose penchant for strikeouts prompted the Texas Rangers to trade him in 2011, despite his immense power potential. The rebuilding Orioles had the luxury of letting Davis work out his contact woes and now, at 27, they are getting the best of his prime power years.

Quiet and humble on and off the diamond, Davis remains something of an enigma. But he, along with some close associates, shared insights with USA TODAY Sports.

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Chris Davis once endangered little kids

Well, not exactly.

But if you've seen many of the 30 home runs he has pounded over major league fences this season, it's not hard to imagine the damage he inflicted on the amateur level.

Even with a wooden bat.

As a burgeoning slugger at Longview High School, two hours east of Dallas, Davis attended several Perfect Game Showcases, designed to highlight his wares for scouts.

At his first such combine, held in Lincoln, Texas, a playground was situated well beyond the right field fence, ostensibly out of harm's way.

Using a wooden bat, Davis easily sent pitch after pitch in that direction, making it rain baseballs on the playground's unsuspecting patrons. Of the 20 pitches of batting practice he took, more than half landed there, and a few settled well beyond it.

"They probably set up a net after that showcase," joked teammate and longtime friend Tate Casey. "I played with him, and even I was like, 'Holy cow.'"

Still, the climb was long. Davis knew playing at Navarro Junior College, about 55 miles south of Dallas, would best boost his draft stock. He went from a 50th-round pick out of high school by the New York Yankees to a 35th-round pick of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005 and finally to a fifth-round pick of the Rangers, signing in 2006.

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Chris Davis is a snack-stealer

One of Davis' and Casey's favorite high school memories are their long road trips to games and summer leagues across Texas. The two drove in a Ford F-150 pickup truck blasting rapper 50 Cent's debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin', much to Davis' chagrin.

"Tate used to wear that thing out," Davis said of the album. "He's a big, tall white guy from West Texas. I told him, 'You're a redneck!'"

On one particularly uneventful trip from Houston to Dallas, they realized they could use Casey's father's gas card to buy snacks. So they did just that, stopping every time they saw a gas station to refuel the truck and stockpile as many bags of chips and bottles of Powerade that they could hold.

The plan worked flawlessly until the next time they had a long drive. Casey's father had mysteriously lost the gas card, and Davis and Casey never saw it again.

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Chris Davis is a softie when it comes to football

In another life, Davis might have been playing a different sport entirely. The righty pitched in high school, and his fastball regularly graced the lower 90s on the radar gun; his two-inning relief performance in a 19-inning win at Boston's Fenway Park was something of a turning point in the 2012 Orioles' season.

Thanks to that arm strength, Casey convinced Davis to join Longview (Texas) High's football team as the quarterback. In theory, the move seemed perfect: Davis was tall, athletic and had an accurate arm. In practice, though, the match was over before it really even started.

"I think he came out for four days, maybe a week," said Casey, who went on to play tight end at the University of Florida. "I think he knew where his future was."

Davis' enjoyment of the game as a spectator hasn't subsided. In the offseason, he and Orioles catcher Taylor Teagarden -- also a Texas native -- make the drive to Arlington for Cowboys games and to Austin to watch the Texas Longhorns.

"We love sports, and we have a big passion for football," Teagarden said. "We spend a lot of time off the field together, guys' kind of things. But we don't do anything crazy though -- we're both pretty chill."

Although Teagarden and Davis have been teammates in Baltimore for less than two seasons, their friendship began many years ago. The pair became close in the Texas Rangers organization when they played at Class A Bakersfield (Calif.) in 2007; they made their big league debuts less than a month apart in 2008. After being traded to the Orioles in separate transactions, the two are happy to remain part of the same organization.

"It's cool to have a guy you've been through so much with on the team," Davis said. "It's like having a brother here."

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Chris Davis has learned how to chill out

Despite his soft-spoken nature, Davis is almost universally regarded as a leader by his peers. In the past, some of the high regard came from his serious and professional demeanor in the clubhouse and on the diamond. It's an attitude he has had since high school, and sometimes it got the best of him.

Now a first baseman, Davis manned third base at Bakersfield in 2007. Before a game, he and the rest of the infield were warming up by fielding ground balls, and Davis felt that manager Carlos Subero hadn't sent enough in his direction. Upset, he started to walk back to the dugout, but Subero confronted him and the two began to argue.

"It wasn't a selfish act," Subero, now a minor league manager in the Angels organization, recalls. "He gets so focused, and he was ready to get his bunch of ground balls."

After the spat, Davis apologized to Subero, and the two never had a similar issue again. And in the six years since the incident, the rising star has become more lighthearted in the clubhouse while maintaining his role as a leader.

"He doesn't take baseball too seriously, and I mean that in a good way," said Orioles teammate Nate McLouth. "He's a good dude."

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Chris Davis doesn't like to crush Crush

Resting on a hanger in his clubhouse locker at Camden Yards hangs a bright orange shirt with the word "Crush" emblazoned on the front, in the font of the popular soda brand. Yet while Davis likes his nicknames, he's not one to wear the apparel.

"The only time I wear my shirt is during a game," he said, gesturing toward his Orioles uniform.

Plenty of fans do it for him. Baltimore sponsored a Davis T-shirt giveaway in May, and shortly after the 10,000 freebies were distributed, they went for as much as $115 each on eBay.

Weeks later, dozens of people walk Eutaw Street on game days with the silhouette of his follow-through printed on their backs. Others simply don tees with the traditional Crush logo. They anticipate the extraordinary every time Davis steps to the plate. It's a lot of pressure for the first baseman, but he has taken it all in stride.

"He hasn't changed a bit," said Orioles hitting coach Jim Presley. "He has matured as a player, and matured as a hitter."

Davis was never a soda drinker, and the beverage with which he shares a name is no exception to the rule. Instead, a carton of water sits on the floor by his locker, and a reusable bottle rests on a suitcase nearby. But advertising executives at Crush shouldn't be too worried: Davis' bat provides plenty of pop.