Willie Davis and his error-filled inning

March 9, 2010 1:02 PM PT

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Willie Davis, the gifted baseball player who roamed center field for the Dodgers from 1960 to 1973, was found dead Tuesday at his home in Burbank at age 69.

Davis was a bright offensive star for the Dodgers, hitting in 31 consecutive games in 1969. But many will remember the day in 1966 when he made three errors in one World Series game. On Oct. 6, 1966, against the Baltimore Orioles, Davis lost three fly balls in the sun at Dodger Stadium.

According to reporter Charles Maher’s account in The Times the next day, Davis came back to the dugout after the inning and told pitcher Sandy Koufax, ‘I’m sorry, I just lost them in the sun.’

Koufax said: ‘Don’t let it get you down.’

Pitcher Don Drysdale said: ‘Hell, forget it. ... You’ve saved a lot of games for me with great catches.’

Read the rest of the story here. And you’ll find Jim Murray’s column from that day here.

The Dodgers wound up making six errors total that day and were swept by the Orioles in four games.

A full obituary will appear later at www.latimes.com/obits.

-- Claire Noland

Afterword

Claire Noland

Claire Noland, who joined the Los Angeles Times in 1994, became editor of curated email newsletters in spring 2015. She had been in the Obituary Department since 2006, the last six years as editor. Before that, she was an editor in Sports. A California native and graduate of Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, she worked at the Antelope Valley Press, Los Angeles Daily News and Minneapolis Star Tribune. She left The Times in December 2015.