They might not be inseparable, as proven by the miles between their homes in baseball retirement, but Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter seem like a natural pairing.

The slugging first baseman and hard-throwing right-hander came to the Orioles in a July 2011 trade that sent Japanese pitcher Koji Uehara to the Rangers. Hunter was dealt to the Cubs four deadlines later, before Davis received the largest contract in franchise history and abruptly retired in the summer of 2021.

They grew to become even better friends over the years, both living in Texas and sharing the same sense of humor, and it makes sense that Davis would ask Hunter to introduce him at the Orioles Hall of Fame luncheon on July 31 before the next day’s induction ceremony at Camden Yards.

Davis is being honored with former pitcher Storm Davis. Late front office executive and scout Jim Russo will receive the Herb Armstrong Award for non-uniformed personnel.

“Well, that was pretty cool,” Hunter said of the request from Davis. “I mean, it was one of those things, he called me, he asked me, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ Now I’ve got to get in shape because I’ve got to go back in front of everybody and I’ve got to look presentable. So hopefully I’ll have a couple good stories. I’m excited to start it off and see how many laughs we can get from the crowd.

“We’ve stayed friends pretty much throughout the time. We’ve been pretty close, so it makes it fun.”

Hunter moved to Cleveland with his wife Ellen and their four children, but he stays in contact with his former teammate and plans to bring his boys on a trip to visit Davis’ new farm.

“I FaceTime most of the time,” Hunter said. “If I’m calling him, I’m FaceTiming. I want to see his reactions.”

The memories of Davis’ dominant period with the Orioles remain crystal clear.

Davis became one of the most feared hitters in the game. He led the majors in home runs with 53 to go with 138 RBIs and a 1.004 OPS in 2013, when he finished third in Most Valuable Player voting, and 47 in 2015. Davis and Anthony Santander are tied for most homers hit on Eutaw Street with 11. Hunter and Sidney Ponson surrendered the most with five.

Few players in franchise history attained the same level of popularity as Davis, nicknamed “Crush” and treated like a cult figure. Handsome, built like he could bend steel with his bare hands, able to clear tall buildings with a single swing – at least it seemed that way – and celebrated after agreeing to a seven-year, $161 million contract that kept him in Baltimore.

Davis and wife Jill were generous with their money, giving $3 million to the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital, which funded the construction of the Evelyn Kay Davis Congenital Hybrid Catheterization Suite and marked the largest philanthropic donation by a Baltimore sports figure to the medical center. They made regular visits to kids staying in the hospital. Another $1 million went to Compassion International in 2020 to aid at-risk children globally, and $1 million to the “Fill the Stadium” campaign to combat child hunger during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They also hosted “Crush’s Homers for Hearts,” an annual charity home run derby at Camden Yards that benefited the UMCH Children’s Heart Program.

Remembering Davis’ feats on the field, Hunter said, “I jumped on the coattail, man. I was like, ‘All right, hey, let’s go here, let’s do this. Hey Chris, take me here, take me there.’ The nicknames, it was fun. He was a folk hero. He was a superhero to a lot of people there. The countless bobblehead dolls. He was the face of the franchise, and rightfully so. The guy put on a show pretty often when he put on his costume every day.

“It’s great for him. I think it fully encompasses who he is and what he did and what he was able to accomplish while he was there. And I think he’s gonna be forever grateful for Baltimore and what it did for him, his family, all of his friends. Just everything that we were able to do together. He was at the head of it.”

It all started with a trade signaling again that the Orioles weren’t ready to contend but set them up for future success. They ended a streak of 14 consecutive losing seasons in 2012 and earned the Wild Card.

“There were some big changes at the beginning,” Hunter said. “We were coming from a first-place team to a borderline last-place team at the time of the trade. He was jumping for joy for an opportunity, where I was kind of blindsided, right? It was interesting, the different reactions from the two of us coming over. And then, it turned out to be one of the best runs that I’ve ever been a part of, year after year. There was a lot of emotions in it.

“He hit 53 home runs in a year. The very first home run he hit that entire year was actually off me in a backfield spring training game. I can honestly say, and I know he remembers it because it was a slap shot to left field. The wind was blowing out 55,000 miles an hour, and it was a wall scraper. I’ll throw that out there (the speech) for sure. I don’t think he got another hit off me after that. We’re gonna work that in, too.

“It means a lot to him. There was a lot of family life, the hospital, his involvement in the community and his involvement in the city. How much the city means to him. Raising a family there. All of his philanthropy stuff he did with the hospital. The countless teammates that he got the opportunity to share a locker room with.

“He got to spend a lot of time in Baltimore, a lot more time than a lot of us, so the city, I think, grew on him and he gave everything he had to it. And to be rewarded at the end of the time there with going into the Hall of Fame, I don’t know how it can get much better than that.”

All of this is why Hunter is also going to celebrate the induction. He’s eager to stand up at the luncheon, launch some quips that rain down on the guests, and shower Davis with love. It comes from the heart.

“It’s pretty awesome. Good for him,” said Hunter, who retired after the 2023 season and now works with his representative, Mike Moye, while soon acquiring his agents license.

“As a teammate, friend, all that kind of stuff, you always see these things, and they’re always something that you’re proud to play a very, very small part in. And hopefully just the excitement that comes with it, reliving it, and the old memories and things like that come into play. Just happy for him and everything that he was able to accomplish.”

Hunter can’t ignore the elephant in the room, how Davis went into a dramatic and historic decline mostly due to his body breaking down, the worst being a degenerative left hip condition that surgery couldn’t fix and an oblique strain. The retirement was agreed upon with the Orioles restructuring his contract to make annual deferred payments through 2037.

The same player who terrorized pitchers and had fans chanting his name after the last game in 2015, many of them threatening to never again set foot in Camden Yards if the Orioles didn’t re-sign him, booed as he hit .168 with a .539 OPS in 128 games in 2018 and .179 with a .601 OPS in 105 games in 2019, and went 6-for-52 with no home runs and one RBI in 16 games in 2020.

Davis ended a 0-for-54 streak on April 13, 2019, a record for a non-pitcher, with a two-run single off Boston’s Rick Porcello at Fenway Park. He clapped his hands at first base and asked for the ball, a playful reaction that masked the mental toll that didn’t vanish until his retirement.

Tough to see a cherished friend go through it?

“Yes,” Hunter said. “There’s a human element to it that the business side kind of just runs into. Once again, though, if he were to do it again, would he change anything? I don’t know. Because the city, the overall experience, I don’t think he would ever let it get weighed down by a very small fraction of the time that he spent there.

“There was so much good that happened, not only for him, his teammates, the city, that a small period of time like that, I don’t think it could really play an ultimate factor in whether it was good or bad. I mean, there’s always going to be some rocky points, and he prevailed through it, and now he’s going up in the rafters. I don’t know if it gets any better than that.”