Davis Improves Batting With The Gump Stump

Given his soft southern accent, Alabama-born Russ Davis wasn’t too surprised when his Seattle teammates dubbed him “Forrest Gump” last year.

And now that he’s having success with a new-found batting stance - batting .316 in his first 28 games - the Mariners even have a name for that stance.

“They’re calling it the ‘Gump Stump,”’ Davis said. “I kind of lean back in the box, with my weight over my back leg.”

The stance is part of Davis’ new approach at the plate, a change that began last year when hitting coach Lee Elia took him to a golf pro to show him the advantages of a weight shift during his swing.

“Look at tapes early last year, I was standing straight up in the box and I held my bat straight up right over my heart,” Davis said. “In the minor leagues, I hit to the opposite field, but when I came up with the Yankees, I only faced left-handed pitchers, and they’d pitch me down and in.

“I got in the habit of spinning my front foot out so I could go down and get that pitch. Unfortunately, when I’d face a right-hander, my first move was to spin that foot instead of going at the ball.”

Working with Elia, Davis found a comfortable stance and - after hours of practice - can now tell when he occasionally reverts to his old style.

“Once he reached the point where he could feel it, he could correct it,” Elia said. “Last year he really had no idea what we were trying to get him to do.”

Davis has 11 doubles and 16 RBIs this season and is off to the best start of his brief major league career. There have been a few setbacks.

“Last week I was watching tapes of (Milwaukee) pitcher Jeff D’Amico,” Davis said, “and on the mound he was back over his back leg - it looked just like he was in the ‘Gump Stump.’ I said, ‘Oh, man, this guy is draining my power.”’

Davis went 0 for 2 with a strikeout against D’Amico.

Notes

Baltimore outfielder Eric Davis missed the game with a strained hamstring muscle, but is leading the American League with a .388 batting average. How would those numbers have looked in Seattle’s outfield? The Mariners nearly found out. During the off-season, Seattle offered Davis $1 million, then $1.2 million. “His agent wanted $1.8 million,” manager Lou Piniella said, “and then the Orioles offered him $2 million. We went after him.” … Weird stat of the day: Ken Griffey Jr. homers against right-handed pitching every 16.3 at-bats in his career. Against left-handed pitching he homers every 16.3 at-bats, too… . Korean-born outfielder Yuni Kim plays for the Mariners’ Class A team in Lancaster, Calif., and has become a popular power hitter - he had four home runs in the Jethawks’ first two games. His nickname? “Yuni-bomber.”

Coming up

Game 2 of this four-game series begins at 4:35 p.m. (PST) today in Camden Yards and will be televised on KIRO (TCI cable channel 25).