By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Dave Miley has used the line more than once that his claim to fame is that he was drafted ahead of Eric Davis.

If Miley gets the Reds managerial job for next season, he could have a new claim to fame - as the man who hired Davis.

After two years away from the game, Davis appears ready to return, depending on the opportunity and the amount of help needed.

"I like Dave. We've always been good friends - and that's even before this conversation," Davis said. "He's always been a real likeable guy."

Davis, 41, has worn a number of hats since leaving baseball after the 1999 season. He has dabbled in real estate and produced rhythm-and-blues groups.

But one could not help but notice when Davis appeared as a guest star on Maad Sports wearing a glitzy jersey with "Cincinnati" stitched across its front.

"Man, I'd forgotten all about that," Davis said of the appearance. "But, yes, I still keep up with the Reds - on DirecTV. . . . And I admit it: It hurts to see the direction they've been headed the last few years."

The Reds are expected to suffer their fourth straight losing season in 2004. No Reds team has had more than three such consecutive seasons since 1955. In Davis' seven full seasons here (1986-91, 1996), only two of those teams - 1989 and 1991 - finished under .500.

"When we (Davis and Miley) were coming up, there were three organizations head and shoulders above the rest - the Reds, the Dodgers and the Yankees," Davis said. "Those were the three you wanted to pattern yourself after. Now, only the Yankees are prominent."

One has to believe Davis could help the Reds in a number of areas: outfield defense, baserunning and hitting with runners in scoring position.

The Reds are expected to name their new manager by the end of this month, and Miley is regarded as a strong candidate.

"Do I miss baseball?" said Davis. "I don't miss playing, but I miss the camaraderie with the guys. The very best thing I can do is to leave my options open and see what develops."

On the face of it, Davis likes the idea of coaching for Miley, because "coaching is synonymous with youth, and the Reds have a lot of young players. As a group, they are going to be more receptive than a group of older guys."

Although Davis wasn't exactly Joe Sewell when it came to keeping his strikeouts to a minimum, he believes he could be of help to the man who wears his old No. 44 - Adam Dunn.

Dunn, 24, is going into his fourth season with what could be his fourth big-league hitting instructor.

"That is screwed up in and of itself," Davis said. "There's no consistency, no stability. A hitter who is struggling might be off only a fraction of an inch, but if he gets too much advice, that fraction of an inch can become a yard."

Some hitting instructors have a philosophy of not talking to the pupil when he is struggling.

Davis' approach is different. He's always been one to watch guys when they're doing well, because he wants to see how they're doing it and talk with them about it.

"It's not just comparing their swing on video from when they're going good to when they're going bad," Davis said. "You want to know what they feel like when they're going good. And the only way you can know that is to talk with them. The first thing I do is listen to what somebody has to say."

When a hitter is struggling, the first thing to do is clear his mind, Davis said.

"You can't be receptive to something if your mind is all cluttered up," Davis said. "I think that is what happens to a lot of these young guys. They're getting information on top of information. You can only take in so much.

"One thing can make a heck of a difference. A guy doesn't need three things."

Davis was pleased to hear that Miley and bench coach Mark Berry have returned the Reds to a fundamentally sound team - the way Davis was brought up in the organization.

"You can have the tradition, but if you don't have the guys who went through it to carry it on, you lose it," Davis said. "That's what happened to the Reds."

He also said the Reds have gotten away from their core philosophy of developing players for the roles they are going to fill on the big-league level.

"There really are such things as a leadoff hitter, a two-hole hitter, a three-hole and fourth-hole hitter, and so on," Davis said. "The way (former Reds general manager) Jim Bowden did it, there were a lot of fill-ins and has-beens. You'd look at that lineup and say, 'Where's the leadoff hitter? Where's the two-hole hitter?'

"They'd have some guy in there winging it, instead of knowing what they were supposed to do and having been trained for it. Of course, I understand the financial constraints. But I didn't see the prototypical Reds guy coming up there in some situations that I was expecting to see it."