Tommy Davis Hurt in Dodger Victory over Giants

May 1, 1965 - In Los Angeles tonight, the Dodgers beat the Giants for the third straight time, 4-2, but they may have lost the pennant.

Cleanup hitter Tommy Davis, major league batting champion in 1962-63, broke and dislocated his right ankle on an ill-fated slide into second base in the fourth inning.

Dr. Robert Kerlan said Davis will be out of action for at least three months and possibly the rest of the season.

Tommy, who’d made six hits in his last nine trips, beat out an infield hit, and on Ron Fairly’s bouncer to Orlando Cepeda, he took off for second.

Davis hit the ground prematurely, his spikes caught in the dirt, and he never reached the bag.

As the Dodger star lay flat on his back, losing pitcher Gaylord Perry, who’d taken Cepeda’s toss to retire Fairly, ran over and tagged the prone athlete.

Trainer Wayne Anderson sprinted over to take care of Tommy.

“When I got there,” said Anderson, “the bone was sticking out at a right angle, and I popped it back into place.”

Carted off the field on a stretcher, the 26-year-old slugger said: “I don’t know how it happened. I thought there was going to be a play on me, and I came in with a new kind of slide. When I looked down, I thought my ankle was in right field.”

Davis was removed to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, and the Dodgers were removed from the board in Las Vegas as pennant favorites.

For the present, either Wally Moon or Dick Smith will spell the wounded warrior in left field, but neither swings a bat like Davis.

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