from Yankees Magazine (?)

Chili Davis began 1999 on fire, bringing his intensity to the plate and into the clubhouse to ignite the Yankees.

BY PETE CALDERA

Davis can stare down opposing pitchers at the plate and from the dugout, looking for anything that can give him an advantage. His look suggested menace, eyes trained on a specific target. For a long moment in the Yankees' dugout, Chili Davis blocked out the Stadium noise, the banter of his teammates, anything that got in the way of his focus. His stare was fixed on a pitcher he was unfamiliar with, but would be soon.

Curious at the subject of his intense gaze, Ricky Ledee had to know what Davis was plotting.

"Primo, you look like you want to kill something," Ledee finally said.

Davis' focus broke from the mound, and a smile spread across his face as he remembered Ledee's question. The Yankees designated hitter had been watching for something in Seattle Mariners starter Mac Suzuki's delivery that would unlock the way to hitting him. This was Davis' baseball version of cracking a safe, or doing the Times crossword puzzle. And his look was serious enough to get Ledee's attention.

"I'm not mad at anything," Davis answered.

"What are you doing? You're staring out there," the young player said.

"I'm looking for a release point, trying to follow his pitches."

The difference between a .250 hitter and a .300 hitter, a .300 hitter and a .340 hitter is not much -- a handful of hits over the course of a month, a half-year, a season.

Where does a player find those hits? On a cool evening in an early May game at Yankee Stadium, following the delivery of someone named Mac Suzuki like a hungry hawk, or in this case, dawg.

Maybe Davis has to watch more carefully at age 39, pay more attention to the details of his baseball life to stay on top of his game when others his age have long passed the downside of their careers, have moved on as coaches or are out of the game.

Earlier this year, Davis made no promises that he would greet the 2000 season with a bat and a baseball uniform, but through the Seattle series at Yankee Stadium, Davis was batting .340, tied for the team lead in home runs (7) and RBIs (25) with Derek Jeter.

Whenever he decides to leave this game, he'll go being remembered just one way.

"He's a professional hitter," Yankees interim manager Don Zimmer said.

Is there a higher compliment in baseball, especially from a man who has been a part of the game for 51 years?

Is there a better sign of respect than teammates wearing custom-designed "CHILI DAWG" t-shirts with inspirational messages on the back, phrases not only to make it through the season, but to live by?

"You have to know how to communicate and he does that really well," Randolph said. "He's always been kind of a steady influence. It's all those things. You have got to have confidence in yourself and you have to understand what others deal with.

"I think he's very observant, he knows a little bit about people and how to approach them and how to relate to them," Randolph said. "You have to be in tune to see who needs that type of advice or help. You've got to know when they need a pat on the back or a kick in the butt.

"And I've known Chili to be very, very blunt and honest, too. He's not the kind of guy who's going to sugarcoat things. He's going to tell you how he feels."

Observe with intelligence, work with diligence. There's no substitute for any of it. Luck is being blessed with astonishing hitting gifts, and a splendid inheritance of natural physical ability that lasts long past the normal athletic prime.

Then it's time to work those skills. So Davis works in the batting cage, early. And he takes advantage of pitchers by his own attention to detail.

Designated hitters have nothing but time and Davis uses every minute.

"Sometimes during the game, even though you're not actually the guy hitting, you try to put yourself in his situation," Davis said. "You watch a guy release a pitch, and you go, 'Hit it,' Or, 'No.' It kind of keeps you in the game that way. That way, when you get up to bat and you see a pitch, you know it's a strike right away, if it's a pitch you can hit right away or you can't hit right away. It allows you more of a reaction time than if you're all of a sudden up there in a situation trying to pick up speed or rotation or whatever."

Consider that Davis hit a career-high 30 home runs with 90 RBI in his last full season, with the 1997 Kansas City Royals.

A torn ankle tendon cost him four months of last season, throwing his career into question. Davis had already begun to answer with a successful post-season performance that culminated in the Yankees' historic World Championship.

But in case anyone was still wondering about Davis this year, he concluded the season's opening seven days by winning the American League's Player of the Week award.

"He's a switch-hitter with a solid approach," Randolph said. "The only thing that's gonna knock Chili out of what he's doing is Father Time. You get to a certain age and people tend to doubt your ability, but Chili's always had the confidence he could do certain things. When he's healthy, he can go to the plate and give you a quality at bat, and that's the key.

"To me, he's unique in that he's a power hitter but he has an average hitter's approach to hitting. It's very rare you find guys, big guys like him, who approach RBI first and home run second. You know from either side you're gonna get a good professional at bat and a good quality at bat with men in scoring position.

"A lot of players don't always focus their hitting like that. He's very smart, he knows how to set pitchers up. You have a guy who can hurt you and get the base hit always and that makes him a pretty dangerous hitter."

He can look dangerous on the bench, too, staring through a pitcher's delivery as if he's contemplating murderous thoughts.

"He's always talking to me about hitting, and I'm always listening," Ledee said. "He's been so successful."

Ledee had the locker next to Davis, where an abundance of hitting knowledge is bound to be scattered about like fall acorns. Before he was sent back to Triple-A Columbus in the second week of May, Ledee tried to cradle as much advice as his arms could carry.

"I'm always asking questions. And he's got a lot of answers," Ledee said.

Naturally, Davis is quick to remind that the Yankees have an excellent hitting instructor in Chris Chambliss. But sometimes you need a teammate's two cents worth to hammer home a point, make you see the depth of it and how to practically apply the new knowledge.

"There's enough good hitters on this team where you can pick up a lot of stuff," Davis said.

"I'd like to hit like him," said Jorge Posada, who, as a switch-hitter with power from both sides, watches Davis especially closely. "The guy's got a lot of experience, and he can help you with pitchers, what he sees out there from pitchers, what he's looking for; all that stuff. It's tough to be a DH, and he's the best at it. When he talks to you about hitting, he knows what he's talking about."

Davis never takes a "do-it-my-way" approach.

"He tries to help you with what you've got," Posada said. "We talk about everything about hitting.

Davis' take on hitting is always subtle, always positive. His most popular hitting mantras deal with forgetting a bad at bat, making an adjustment instead of taking bad thoughts and tendencies back to the plate.

But it's nothing that came overnight.

When he first got to the majors with the San Francisco Giants in 1981, Davis would only grudgingly give credit to pitchers who could get him out. Gradually, his mindset changed and a new theory was born.

"Coming up as a younger player, you tend to be a little stubborn," Davis said. "You may refuse to believe that this guy just made a couple of quality pitches on you. As you get older, you recognize that and think, 'Well maybe I have to make an adjustment. Maybe I have to go get his pitch because he's not going to give me anything good to hit.' I think as a young hitter, you tend to try and think you can hit everything. For me, I did."

He just about did during the season's opening week, going 1O-for-20 with three home runs.

Zimmer gives a contented look on the subject of Davis, a virtuoso hitter who would rather give quality time to young players than merely flaunt his success.

"He's been outstanding," Zimmer said. "There's been series this year where it seems he nearly won every game with a big hit. He's a good DH and a good man."

"As I got older, I realized you cannot hit every pitch. You can't cover in and out (inside corner and outside corner) at the same time," Davis said. "You give the pitcher part of the plate, you take part of it. And if he comes into the part that you're hitting at, then you're supposed to beat him."

The Big Dawg in the clubhouse not only practices those words of wisdom, but he tries to teach them to the young pups, too.