David Allen Johnson (January 30, 1943 – September 5, 2025) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played as a second baseman from through , most notably in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the Baltimore Orioles dynasty which won four American League pennants and two World Series championships between 1966 and 1971. Johnson played in MLB from 1965 to 1975, then played for two seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) before returning to play in MLB with the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs from 1977 to 1978. A three-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner, he was selected to four All-Star Game teams during his playing career.
A mathematics major at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, Johnson was among the first Major League managers to apply computer-based statistical analysis to decision-making, an approach which later became known as sabermetrics.
After retiring as a player, Johnson became a successful manager. He led the New York Mets to the 1986 World Series title, and to an additional National League East title in 1988. He won the American League's Manager of the Year Award in 1997, when he led the Baltimore Orioles wire-to-wire to the American League East division championship. He won the same award in the National League in 2012, when he led the Washington Nationals to the franchise's first division title since they moved to Washington, D.C., and its first overall since 1981. Johnson managed teams to their respective League Championship Series in three consecutive years – the Cincinnati Reds in 1995 and the Orioles in both 1996 and 1997. He also briefly managed the Los Angeles Dodgers. He led the United States national team at the 2009 World Baseball Classic, earning fourth place.
Playing career After one season playing baseball at Texas A&M University in College Station, Johnson signed with the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent in 1962. He had been scouted by the Orioles’ Jim Russo. Johnson was then assigned to the Stockton Ports in the Class C California League where he hit .309 with 10 home runs and 63 runs batted in (RBIs) in 97 games. Promoted to the AA Elmira Pioneers in 1963, he hit .326 in 63 games before advancing to the AAA Rochester Red Wings for the final 63 games of the season. Returning to the Red Wings for the entire 1964 season, Johnson had 19 home runs, 73 RBIs, and 87 runs.
In 1965, Johnson made the Orioles' team after spring training, but after hitting only .170 in 20 games he spent the latter part of the season with the Red Wings, batting .301 in 52 games. Back with the Orioles in 1966, Johnson took the starting second baseman job from Jerry Adair, which led to the Orioles trading Adair to the Chicago White Sox on June 13. Johnson then hit for a .257 batting average, seven home runs and 56 RBIs to finish third in American League Rookie of the Year balloting for 1966. Johnson was a full-time starter in the major leagues for the next eight seasons, averaging over 142 games played in a season.
Johnson reached the World Series with the Orioles in , , , and , winning World Series rings in 1966 and 1970. He also won the AL Gold Glove Award the final three seasons. Orioles shortstop Mark Belanger won the award as well in 1969 and 1971, making them one of the few middle infield duos to have won the honor in the same season. Third baseman Brooks Robinson also was in the middle of his record 16 straight Gold Glove streak when Johnson and Belanger won their awards.
Upset after being replaced as the starting second baseman by Bobby Grich, and with the Orioles in need of a power-hitting catcher, Johnson was traded along with Pat Dobson, Johnny Oates, and Roric Harrison to the Atlanta Braves for Earl Williams and Taylor Duncan on the last day of the Winter Meetings on December 1, 1972. The following season with the Braves, Johnson hit 40 home runs for the first and only time in his career,100 Things Braves Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die: Revised and Updated, Jack Wilkinson, Triumph Books, Chicago, 2019, ISBN 978-1-62937-694-3, p. 138 tying Rogers Hornsby's record for most single-season home runs by a second baseman with 42, and hitting a 43rd as a pinch-hitter.The Sporting News Baseball Record Book, 2007 p. 23 Johnson's second-highest home run total was 18, in the 1971 season. That same season Atlanta's Darrell Evans hit 41 home runs, and Hank Aaron hit 40 homers, making the 1973 Braves the first team to feature three teammates that each hit 40 home runs in the same season. Four games into the 1975 season and after getting a hit in his only at bat, Johnson was released by the Braves.
Johnson then signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Central League, with whom he played in both the 1975 and 1976 seasons. Johnson was the Giants' first foreign player of note in more than 15 years, and faced a lot of pressure to perform in Japan. He struggled in his first season, battling injuries, and incurred the wrath of the Giants' manager (and former Hall of Fame player) Shigeo Nagashima. Despite playing much better in 1976, Johnson was not invited back by the Giants, who also reportedly prevented him from signing with any other NPB teams.Whiting, Robert. You Gotta Have Wa (Vintage Departures, 1989), pp. 162–171.
In 1977, Johnson returned to the United States, signing as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies. As a utility infielder, Johnson hit .321 with eight home runs in 78 games and played in one game in the Phillies' National League Championship Series loss to the Dodgers.
During the 1978 season, Johnson hit two grand slams as a pinch-hitter, becoming the first major leaguer to accomplish this in a season. (Four other players, Mike Ivie (1978), Darryl Strawberry (1998), Ben Broussard (2004), and Brooks Conrad (2010), subsequently matched Johnson's feat.) Shortly afterwards, Philadelphia dealt him to the Chicago Cubs, with whom he played the final 24 games of his career before retiring at the end of the 1978 season.
Managing career
Minor leagues In 1979, Johnson was hired to be the manager of the Miami Amigos of the Triple-A Inter-American League. Although Johnson guided the team of released and undrafted players to a .708 winning percentage, the league folded 72 games into its only season, having planned to play a 130-game season. In 1981, Johnson was hired to manage the New York Mets Double-A team, the Jackson Mets, leading the team to a 68–66 record in his only season with the team. In 1983, Johnson was named as the manager of the Mets Triple-A Tidewater Tides, which finished with a 71–68 record.
New York Mets
Johnson took over the Mets in 1984, a team that had not won a pennant since 1973. He became the first National League manager to win at least 90 games in each of his first five seasons. The highlight of his time with the Mets was winning the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox.
Years later, he summed up his approach to managing by saying, "I treated my players like men. As long as they won for me on the field, I didn't give a flying fuck what they did otherwise." The 1983 team had won 68 games, but talent was showing for a potential winner with rookie Darryl Strawberry. A trade to acquire Keith Hernandez and Johnson's decision to suggest bringing up Dwight Gooden helped turn them into a winner of 90 games for the 1984 season. Gary Carter was acquired in December 1984, and the Mets won 98 games the next year, but it was only good enough for another second-place finish (three games behind St. Louis). The 1986 team won 108 games, which was the best in the majors. It was only the second time the Mets won 100 games in a season, with the other time being 1969.
The Mets won 92 games the following season, but they fell three games short of matching St. Louis. The next year, they won 100 games to win the division. The NLCS ended with a seven-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, which turned on a loss in Game 4 after winning two of the first three games.
Johnson had a bitter feud with general manager Frank Cashen. When the Mets struggled early in the 1990 season, starting the season 20–22, Johnson was fired. He finished with a record of 595 wins and 417 losses in the regular season and 11 wins and nine losses in the postseason. He is the winningest manager in Mets history and was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame with Cashen, Strawberry, and Gooden on August 1, 2010.
Cincinnati Reds After more than two seasons out of baseball, the Cincinnati Reds hired Johnson 44 games into the 1993 season. As was the case with the Mets, Johnson revived the Reds almost immediately. The next season, he led the team to the National League Central division lead at the time of the 1994 players' strike and won the first official NL Central title in 1995. However, early in the 1995 season, Reds owner Marge Schott announced Johnson would not return in 1996, regardless of how the Reds did. Schott named former Reds third baseman Ray Knight, who had played for Johnson on the Mets championship team, as bench coach, with the understanding that he would take over as manager in 1996.
Johnson and Schott had never gotten along, and relations had deteriorated to the point that he had nearly been fired after the 1994 season. According to Johnson, Schott would even send notes to him that were addressed to him by her St. Bernard. By most accounts, the final straw came because Schott did not approve of Johnson living with his fiancée Susan before they were married (the two met in 1993 and married a year later). According to The Washington Post, Schott had decided before the 1995 season even started that it would be Johnson's last one in Cincinnati. The Reds defeated the Dodgers in the NLDS and reached the NLCS in Johnson's last season as the Reds' manager, being swept by the eventual World Series champion Atlanta Braves. Johnson finished with a record of 204 wins and 172 losses in the regular season and three wins and four losses in the post-season. The Reds would not reach the postseason again until Dusty Baker led them to the NL Central title in 2010. To date, Johnson remains the last Reds manager to win a playoff series.
Baltimore Orioles In 1996, Johnson returned to Baltimore as the Orioles' manager on a three-year, $2.25 million contract. The Orioles had gone 71–73 the previous year, but the team had promising talent to go with future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Mussina, Eddie Murray, and Roberto Alomar. The team went 88–74, finishing four games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East but it was good enough for the wild card by three games. It was the Orioles' first trip to the postseason since winning the 1983 World Series. The Orioles defeated the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series, the defending champion of the American League who had won 99 games, the best in the majors that season, and lost the Championship Series against the New York Yankees.
In 1997, the Orioles went 98–64 to finish with the best record in the American League while retaining the key core from before (albeit with the loss of Murray while acquiring future Hall of Famer Harold Baines mid-season). In the Division Series, they faced the Seattle Mariners. The Orioles won the series in four games, as they routed the Mariners with 23 runs while allowing just 11. They met the Cleveland Indians in the Championship Series, who had upset the Yankees. The Orioles lost in six games.