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Before he started clubbing baseballs around Central Columbia High School, Doug Davis had another field to hit.
				He grew up on the family farm.
				&ldquo;We still have part of that farm,&rdquo; said Davis, a 57-year-old Bloomsburg native and resident, said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not active anymore. I have a couple guys who grow crops, and Christmas trees to sell. But it&rsquo;s not really a working farm anymore.&rdquo;
				Back when he was a kid, though, Davis remembers it being very busy.
				&ldquo;We had cattle, pigs,&rdquo; Davis said.
				So he knows a few things about raising potential prospects.
				Now he&rsquo;ll try to grow the games of players hoping to help the New York Yankees win a World Championship.
				Davis, who spent the last three seasons as a coach for the team, was named the fifth manager of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders last week. He is the first guy in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre&rsquo;s 32-year history to grow up just outside the area and go on to manage the Triple-A team. The only guys to wear a RailRiders uniform who grew up closer were former first baseman Russ Canzler from Hazleton and former pitcher Matt Wotherspoon from Mountain Top.
				It&rsquo;s representation, and an opportunity, Davis doesn&rsquo;t take lightly.
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big deal for me,&rdquo; Davis said during introductory media gathering Thursday at PNC Field. &ldquo;To be close to home is important for me.&rdquo;
				The baseball field has always been Davis&rsquo; home away from home, though.
				After starring at Central Columbia, Davis played college ball at North Carolina State and played 12 seasons in the minor leagues, hitting .239 with 45 home runs, 101 doubles and 293 RBI. He played seven games in the big leagues, going 0-for-6 with the California Angels in 1988 and 1-for-1 with the Texas Rangers in 1992.
				He was a bench coach in Florida when the Marlins upset the favored New York Yankees and won the 2003 World Series and spent time as a minor league field coordinator for the Toronto Blue Jays.
				He managed 999 games in the minor leagues and the first game he manages for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will be his 1,000th.
				Davis was named the 1998 minor league manager of the year after leading Class A Columbia to the South Atlantic League title, guided Syracuse in 2007 and 2008 during his only two years as a Triple-A manager and lately he&rsquo;s worked in a variety of roles as a coach for the RailRiders since 2017.
				He has seen the evolution of baseball from a lot of angles and from just about every level during 40-plus years in the game.
				&ldquo;I think the industry, as a whole, has changed,&rdquo; Davis said.
				One thing hasn&rsquo;t, though.
				At the Triple-A level, it&rsquo;s still about getting guys ready to help the big club.
				And that&rsquo;s a big reason why Davis became attracted to the job, after last year&rsquo;s RailRiders manager Jay Bell stepped down to pursue major league opportunities.
				&ldquo;The big thing is development of players,&rdquo; Davis said. &ldquo;When I looked at it, I wanted the opportunity to interview for this job.&rdquo;
				He believes he&rsquo;ll have the trust, and respect, of his players.
				&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been here for three years,&rdquo; Davis said. &ldquo;The experience part of it, the players know me. They know I&rsquo;ve managed. They know I&rsquo;ve played.&rdquo;
				He also knows there&rsquo;s more to the game than getting guys to play hard at this level.
				An aggressive manager by nature, Davis was prompt to point out his style will be dictated not only by the guys who end up on the roster, but by the plans the Yankees may have for them.
				&ldquo;A lot of the decision-making will be based on how they want me to run this team,&rdquo; Davis said.
				He hopes it begins a relationship that will lead to a run of consistency for the RailRiders.
				They&rsquo;ve gone through four managers in the last four years, after Dave Miley arrived as manager in 1997 when the Yankees moved their Triple-A team to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and stayed until 2015.
				&ldquo;I go back to the Dave Miley years,&rdquo; Davis said. &ldquo;They chemistry and consistency plays a part in it, as well. I think I&rsquo;m the right person for the job at this time.&rdquo;
				He believes it can be an ideal partnership, with a baseball lifer supplementing baseball&rsquo;s most iconic franchise with new life from season to season.
				Kind of like taking care of the farm.

Sokoloski: With Davis, Yankees prospects are in good hands down on the farm