1953 Mother's Cookies Piper Davis #54 ⭐ MLB Pioneer
Have an extra biscuit with your morning cup of Joe!
Lorenzo “Piper” Davis was one of the most important figures in the Birmingham Black Barons during the Negro League era.
He was a superb and versatile infielder, playing for Birmingham from 1942–1950 and became its player-manager, leading the Black Barons to the 1943, 1944 and 1948 Negro American League pennants.
Perhaps Davis's greatest legacy was as a teacher and mentor to Willie Mays.
He discovered and signed Mays as a teenager and taught him the fundamentals and toughness that would help launch one of baseball's greatest careers.
Mays later called Davis “the most important person in my early baseball years.”
Davis himself was an outstanding player who reportedly came close to a major-league career and was ultimately signed by the Boston Red Sox as their first Black player, although he never appeared in a major-league game.