CIncinnati Reds Hall of Famer Eric Davis has joined the list of those opposed or at least those questioning Marge Schott's name being on the University of Cincinnati's baseball stadium.
After UC Athletics Hall of Famer and two-time World Series champion Kevin Youkilis supported Bearcats pitcher Nathan Moore's stance that the Marge Schott Stadium name "is honoring an individual who was openly racist" and should be changed, Davis spoke Wednesday with The Cincinnati Enquirer about his "tumultuous" relationship with the former Reds owner and expressed his understanding of those wanting the late Schott's name removed from the facility.
"People around Cincinnati gotta remember the good and the bad to Marge," Davis said. "You also gotta remember why she had to sell the team. You gotta remember why she got suspended, and you gotta say, 'Does the good outweigh the bad in conjunction to her donating money and in conjunction to her belittling me as a black man, Dave Parker as a black man, and a lot of other racial statements that she made that ultimately got her removed from ownership?"
Schott, a Cincinnati native, became the owner of the Reds in 1984 and was banned from managing the team from 1996 through 1998 after making statements endorsing former Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler. During her tenure as owner, Schott made slurs toward African-Americans, Jews and people of Japanese descent.
Davis played for the Reds from 1984 to 1991 and again in 1996. Schott, on at least one occasion, referred to Davis and Parker as "million-dollar n.....s."
Schott also neglected to return phone calls from Davis when he was in the hospital receiving treatment for a lacerated kidney he suffered against the Oakland Athletics in Game 4 of the 1990 World Series. Davis was calling Schott about flight arrangements from Oakland back to Cincinnati.
Davis returned to Cincinnati on a private plane that cost him nearly $15,000. The Reds went on to sweep the Athletics and win the franchise's fifth World Series championship. The organization hasn't won another since.
"For me, I can't come out and say take (Marge Schott's name) off because I wasn't there. I don't know the reason why they put it on," Davis said. "Me personally, she did some good things since then. I ended up having a good relationship with Marge. Marge rectified her relationship with me personally. She might not have done it publicly, but she did it to me personally. She apologized for the things that she did and the things that she said. She brought me back to Cincinnati. ... But saying that, that does not erase the fact that the things that she said were racial. It was racist and it hurt. It scarred me for life."
Schott agreed to sell her controlling interest in the Reds in 1999. She died in 2004.