A phone call from Bill Stetka, the Orioles’ alumni director and team historian, finally convinced Chris Davis that he’d be inducted into their Hall of Fame. No one could make him believe it until he heard directly from the club.

Adam Jones tried last year during his ceremony at Camden Yards. The effort was appreciated but didn’t sway him.

“He’s like, ‘Shut up, dude, you’re going in Orioles Hall of Fame. You’re the single-season home run leader.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, until I’m not,’” Davis recalled.

“He said, ‘You’re going in. Don’t be an idiot.’ So I’m thinking, maybe he’s right. But I really didn’t know.”

Davis felt “relieved” more than euphoric when Stetka contacted him. Twice leading the majors in home runs and attaining the stature of a super hero in Baltimore should have been enough, but the historic decline – mostly due to his body breaking down – raised considerable doubts. He hit .168 with a .539 OPS in 128 games in 2018 and .179 with a .601 OPS in 105 games in 2019, and he went 6-for-52 with no home runs and one RBI in 16 games in 2020.

There’s also the 0-for-54 streak, a record for a non-pitcher, that ended on April 13, 2019 in Boston. Fans began to boo a player they had loved and embraced. The cheering will return Saturday as he slips on his green jacket.

“I’m probably my biggest critic, I always have been,” he said. “I had very high expectations and very high goals and I always did. So struggling for that long after being on the top for a few years, I didn’t know what to expect.

“It means so much to me. I mean, I spent 10 years of my career there. We don’t live in Baltimore, but we feel like we are very much a part of that community and that city. That’s where (oldest daughter) Ella was born. The twins (Evie and Grace) grew up there for the most part. We spent the entireties of our summers up there, but sometimes we would stay there in the fall because the weather’s really nicer there.

“There’s so many memories and so many relationships that we made with people up there that we care about, so it’s a huge honor. Frank Robinson, Cal Ripken, I’m not even gonna try to go down the list. There are some dudes in the Orioles Hall of Fame. And I didn’t grow up with a baseball franchise that had a ton of history, and to be traded to a team like that and be a part of that, and now to be included  in it forever is just a huge honor. So it meant a lot to me and I’m extremely humble and grateful for the induction for sure.”

It finally seems real.

Davis and wife Jill will treat former manager Buck Showalter, teammates and their wives to dinner Friday night after the Orioles Advocates luncheon, where close friend Tommy Hunter will introduce him.

“I knew when I asked him to present that there was a possibility that it was gonna be really good, just because it’s Tommy,” Davis said with a laugh. “We’ll get together the night before, but I don’t want to hear it until I hear it, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Coaches Wayne Kirby and Scott Coolbaugh also will attend, and the list of players includes Jones, Darren O’Day, Zack Britton, Brad Brach, Matt Wieters, T.J. McFarland and Craig Gentry.

“That’s one of the things I love about this weekend is you get a bunch of former players in the same room and you get to reconnect,” Davis said.

“We were such a tight-knit group, but once everybody kind of retired, you go your own way, you’ve got kids, and it’s hard to keep in touch. And guys are the worst about it. I’m probably the worst about reaching out to people and trying to keep up, because a lot of times I’m just where my feet are. But Tommy and I have kept up.

“Ellen and Jill are super close. I talk to him quite a bit. And we started the journey together. Our kids are super close in age. Ellen basically took care of Jill when we didn’t have family in town when Ella was really little, the year she was born, so they’re like family with us.”

Occasional back soreness is the only issue that Davis deals with physically, forcing him to reluctantly alter his workouts. He underwent surgery to repair a torn hip labrum and remove bone spurs on both sides of the femur head in the same hip.

“That’s essentially what forced me into retirement,” he said.

Davis appeared in 16 games in 2020 and called it quits in a statement on Aug. 12, 2021. He signed the largest contract in franchise history at $161 million over seven years, and the two sides worked out an agreement that spread the remaining money owed until 2037.

He never did fit in a rebuild under new management.

“I got about halfway through that rehab and I started to realize how long it was going to take me to be able to play, and I’m honestly glad I retired when I did because it took longer to get back to an athletic shape after the rehab was done,” Davis said.

“Even after my rehab was finished, I would not have been baseball ready. Instead of dragging it out, I decided to retire. I ended up having knee surgery on my meniscus a year after that, but yeah, it was brutal, man. My back bothered me so much. I remember that spring training when I came out of a game, we were exploring all this stuff. I went to a spine doctor in St. Pete and got these injections, and couldn’t move for eight weeks, couldn’t rotate. I’m like, ‘That’s two months.” And we’re in spring training. That was kind of the beginning of the end for me.

“That’s probably the biggest regret I have in my career is not exploring the injury side of it. I always thought my best tool was availability, and I think a lot of that was maybe prideful, but I really wish I had reached out to the people around me and let them know that I was uncomfortable. In my head I thought, if I can just stay out there, I’ll figure it out at some point. But I realized after a few years, and it’s embarrassing to say it took a few years, that something was really wrong. And I don’t think it was until the end of 2019 where I started to think something’s different.

“I don’t have the drive off my back side like I used to. I’m hitting balls and they’re not jumping like they used to. And my back killed me. I just medicated and tried to keep going, and that was not the right plan. But I feel good now physically.”

Perhaps the best way to describe it is that Davis is at peace. The hurting has faded, and not just in his body. The damage ran much deeper.

“I was in a really bad place – mentally, emotionally, physically obviously,” he said. “I was just at a point where I was like, ‘What are you doing? Your kids are getting older, you’re trying to hang on for what? You’re not productive and you’re a shell of the player you were.’ And that realization was hard because I’m so competitive. I wanted one last chance to prove that I could still do it.”

The world shut down just as Davis felt like his comeback was gaining momentum.

“The frustrating thing was, the 2020 spring training was the first time I was like myself again,” he said. “That offseason I made some changes in my training and I quit dipping (tobacco), which was really hard, and I came into spring training and I felt confident. I remember Mike Elias and I had a conversation at the end of 2019 and he’s like, ‘We want you to bulk back up.’ I graduated high school at 215. And the end of the 2019 season I was 213 pounds. I was stressed out. I was coping. Jill and the girls were gone. They were back here.

“I remember being in DC sitting in the dugout and I took my hat off, looked down and my hair was in my hat. I was in a bad place. And so Mike Elias and I had that conversation and I was like, ‘OK, I can do that, I like that.’ I came into camp at like 245, I felt really good, and I went off that spring training.”

And then it grinded to a halt a couple of weeks into March. The team was supposed to play the Twins in Fort Myers and the bus circled the complex and returned. Davis was in his truck and got the call from the former traveling secretary telling him to turn around. The game was canceled, and most likely the rest of camp due to the pandemic.

“I was the player rep at the time, so I started getting calls and texts from other guys and guys with the union,” Davis said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get on a call tomorrow morning,’ and I’m like, ‘Holy crap.’ And the rest is history.

“I remember when we started back up, my back was still bothering me because I continued to train throughout the summer, and my knee had started bothering me, and I’m like, ‘Crap, what am I doing now?’ It was just overuse. I wanted to stay in shape. A bunch of us would get together and play sandlot games, which was friggin’ awesome. But we were all trying to stay in shape and stay ready because we never knew when the season was going to start.

“That was really my best shot at it and it’s frustrating for a number of reasons. I’m glad I retired when I did because I wasn’t doing anybody any favors trying to hang around. The team was going in a completely different direction and I think I was kind of standing in the way, so to speak.”

Retirement for Davis includes having a farm built in Argyle, Texas, which he never imagined while playing.

“Jill has forced me to become a farmer and I’m not a farmer, but I help her take care of our animals,” he said. “We just had a baby calf, surprise, just a few days ago.”

Baseball remains an important part of his life. He just needed to separate from it for a period of time.

Davis serves as a volunteer assistant coach at Liberty Christian School, which his daughters attend. He runs the offense with former Rockies outfielder Brad Hawpe and works with the infielders, especially the first basemen. He also started a college baseball fellowship with one of the fathers at the school.

“And I’m driving these three knuckleheads around, youth sports,” he said with a laugh.

“It took me a couple years after I retired to get back in baseball. I knew I wanted to get back in some capacity, but I wasn’t sure, and I was a little sour when I retired for a number of reasons, so it took me a couple years, but I’m really glad I’m back in it because I really love it, the game. It’s been nice to be part of a staff again, part of a team, to coach kids and scratch that baseball itch. And I feel like it’s a good way to give back to a game that gave me so much.”