5 Good Questions with Norm: Jon Davis

Jon, thanks for taking some time.

Thanks for having me.

Please tell us more about yourself.

My name is Jon Davis. I live in McMinnville, Oregon and graduated in 2006 from McMinnville High School. I grew up playing baseball throughout my whole childhood with the McMinnville Parks and Recreation and also played my senior year for Mac High. Baseball is a huge passion of mine.

Growing up with my uncle playing professional baseball was really awesome. I was pretty young still for most of his career but it was pretty cool seeing him play on television and also in person. He definitely was a huge role model for me and helped myself and my siblings out a lot during our times of playing baseball. I am definitely very proud of him and all that he accomplished during his career and I am very happy that I was able to watch him. I will always cherish those memories.

Who were your influences growing up? 

I had a lot of positive influences while growing up. First and foremost my parents where huge supporters throughout my childhood and still are to this day. My mother was definitely a huge baseball fan and was always involved with myself and my siblings playing baseball as well. She was dubbed “Dugout Mom” because she was so involved in the game and everything she did for us kids playing. She was the lady you could always hear yelling at us to pick up our game or yelling at the umpires for horrible calls.

She even pulled me off the mound while I was pitching one game because I started to throw side arm and she didn’t want me to risk injuring my arm. She told my coach that if he didn’t take me off the mound then she would. She was definitely the greatest out there! My Uncle Scott was a great influence as well with all his helpful pointers and also for hooking me up with baseball gear when my family couldn’t really afford them at the time.

Do you have a favorite moments playing baseball? You played for one of my favorites Eric Hoff, what was that like?

Playing baseball for Eric Hoff were my favorite moments and years playing ball. He was such an amazing coach. I don’t think I have met anyone that had so much love and passion for the game then he did. He was like a second father to me during those years and truly made playing ball extremely fun. I remember helping him out at his flower farm over the summers planting flowers, driving tractors around plowing the fields. One of the best memories of Eric was when we built a full on baseball field in his backyard. It was the coolest thing ever! Our team would be out there for every practice and it was so fun! He is by far my most favorite baseball coach I have ever had! I love that guy!

Did you get to travel with your Uncle Scott while he was playing?

I never had the opportunity to actually travel with my uncle while he was playing but he always had tickets for my family to come watch him play every time he was in Seattle playing the Mariners. When he was still with the A’s, he flew our whole family down to Oakland to watch him play a game there. We all got to watch the game from the Sky Box and I remember when he was in the on deck circle I yelled out his name and waved at him and he turned around with a huge smile and waved back at me! It was such an amazing experience!

You became a Marine. What persuaded you to do so?  Also you had an unfortunate circumstance happen to you while in Afghanistan.  Would you share that with our readers? And how are you doing now?

Yes I joined the Marine Corps 9 months before graduation and left for boot camp a month and a half after graduating High School. I joined the Corps because I wanted to really make a name for myself and challenge myself at the same time. I wasn’t the best student in school and I didn’t play ball very long in high school so that ruined my chances of playing college ball.

I knew joining the Corps would give me the opportunity to go to school after I served my time for our Country. October 2nd, 2009 I deployed for Afghanistan. I was scheduled to do a 7 month tour but that was cut short after 3 months. December 22nd I checked into the medical facility on my base with what was suppose to of been either Bronchitis or Pneumonia. After doing chest x-rays the Medical Officers informed me that I had some sort of abnormal growth in my chest and that I was being flown back the United States that same night and to grab the bare minimum of my possessions and to say my goodbyes to my fellow comrades.

After a couple weeks of travel I arrived back in California and checked into Balboa Naval Hospital. They performed numerous tests on me and after a few days I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. I was transferred up to OHSU January 17th to start treatment. Everything spiraled downhill from there. I spent 6 weeks in a medically induced coma and on life support. i spent a total of 13 weeks in the hospital before I was transferred to Rehab Center here in McMinnville. After a few months there I finally got cleared to go home and continued my recovery there.

I did 3 months of Radiation Therapy and 2 full years of Chemotherapy. I successfully completed all my treatments January 15th of 2012 and am now very proud to say that I beat the cancer and have been cancer free for a year now! It is my goal now to be able to travel and get to attend more baseball games and just get back into the whole baseball community again. Hopefully one day I can get a chance to visit Yankee Stadium and watch a game or two there.

Jon, thanks for taking some time.

Thank You Norm for the opportunity!