Former Major League Baseball World Series player and manager Davey Johnson, a member of the Seminole County Sports Hall of Fame, has passed away at the age of 82 in Sarasota.
Johnson, who was a star player with the Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves, and a manager of several teams, most notably the New York Mets, got his coaching start at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium under Wes Rinker following his MLB playing days.
After playing two years in Japan, Johnson was in Sanford to play and coach in Rinker’s Florida Baseball School’s Fall League and was named to manage the Miami Amigos in a new Caribbean Baseball League that failed to develop because of logistical problems.
After his professional managing career, he returned to Central Florida to coach in the Florida Collegiate Summer League for the DeLand Suns and Sanford River Rats, before returning to the MLB with the Washington Nationals.
More to come later.
