A good pitcher but a better man: Duncan, OK remembers big leaguer Roy ‘Peaches’ Davis
DUNCAN, Okla. (KFOR) – The old baseball fields at Fuqua Park are gone now.
The view from the bandstand offers kiddy rides, a four-lane Highway 81, and the armory, now the Stephens County Museum.
But dig beneath the foundations and one ball player’s name pops up more than just about any other, especially now that so many of Roy “Peaches” Davis’ stuff is on display.
“He threw with his right hand but batted lefty,” says historian Clayton Pickard, who is one among several local staffers on hand to re-tell the colorful stories. “I like to call them the Golden Generation of Duncanites. They remember Peaches.”
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Roy (or Ray as some Cincinnati Reds material calls him) was a good athlete in a big man’s body.
He was all of 6-foot 3-inches tall.
Davis played football for a season at Oklahoma Baptist University, but his real talents lay in throwing a baseball.
“Every ball he pitched was a good pitch,” insists Pickard.
Roy Halliburton spotted him first and hired him as a ringer for his Halliburton Cementers semi-pro company team in 1926.
“There were a lot of tall people who played baseball for Roy P. Halliburton,” says Pickard, “big guys.”
He played for all kinds of minor league clubs every summer.
A favorite family story passed down tells of a day Peaches walked to play a game in Rush Springs, 15 miles north.
They paid him with coins before he walked back.
“Quarters, nickels, and dimes,” chuckles Clayton. “He carried his money all the way back to Duncan.”
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Davis finally made the Major Leagues with the Cincinnati Reds in 1936.
He pitched Opening Day that year and lost a pitchers’ duel with Dizzy Dean.
His big-league career was up and down.
His best pitch, the sinkerball on a team that reflected his 27-33 win-loss record.
Peaches appeared in 117 games over 4 seasons then bounced around during the war years before retiring in 1945.
The Davis family kept an amazing number of photographs and artifacts, uniforms, gloves, and paperwork.
Peaches used his baseball money to purchase 25 acres of land with his brother in 1946.
The Davis Addition is still on the Duncan City Map.
He passed away in 1995 just shy of 90 years and fondly remembered in his hometown.
Pickard and other local history buffs talked for months before opening what will be a permanent exhibit at the Stephens County Museum.
It’s dedicated to the big shoes of a decent big league pitcher, but a better man.
Find more information on the Stephens County History Museum website.
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