Q & A WITH TOMMY DAVIS:

There was a poignant moment while former Dodgers great Tommy Davis fielded questions at The Cannery restaurant in Newport Beach Tuesday night.

Dan Ardell, a Corona del Mar resident, didn’t want to ask Davis about baseball during the Hot Stove League series speaking engagement. Ardell wanted to know about something away from the diamond.

Ardell asked Davis, 69, what it meant to see Barack Obama as president

“It’s something I didn’t think I would ever see in my lifetime,” Davis said. “I am so overwhelmed that he’s the president … How do you think I feel about it? I feel great. He’s the 44th president. He will always be there in history.”

Before Davis, the National League batting champion in 1962 and ’63 who played 18 Major League seasons with 10 teams, including eight years with the Dodgers, fielded questions at the Cannery, he sat down with the Daily Pilot.

Question: Should the Dodgers sign Manny Ramirez?

Answer: Should they sign him? They should give him part of the club. But seriously, it’s going to be tough. He’s looking for security and as long as he can play, he’s looking for a lot of years. I don’t think the Dodgers are going to give him the years he wants. I pray that he would play with the Dodgers. I hope that he would finish his career here because he’s a great hitter. He has his downfalls, but offensively, I have never seen anything like him.

Q: What do you think of Joe Torre?

A: He’s a homie. He’s from Brooklyn. I’m from Brooklyn. He had some great years with the Yankees, won some championships. He’s a ballplayer’s manager. I don’t know if he loves being on the West Coast, but the guys like him.

Q: What will it take for the Dodgers to win the World Series?

A: Pitching and defense. If you have great pitching, you don’t need a lot of offense. I’ll give you an example, our team. [Sandy ] Koufax and [Don] Drysdale and those guys. If you have one or two runs, you’re in the game. That must be pitching.

Q: You have plenty of highlights in your career, what tops the list?

A: Beating the Yankees [with the Dodgers in the 1963 World Series]. I’m from Brooklyn and all those years the Dodgers played … Let’s go back to when Jackie Robinson came in 1947. From ’47 to ‘56, the Dodgers were in six World Series. They played all six against the Yankees. They were able to win their first World Series in 1955. I had an uncle [Dan Smith] who is the only Yankee fan in my whole family. He would come and ridicule us every year. He would come and say ‘We beat your butts again.’ And, we couldn’t say anything until that one year that we won and he actually left town for about a week.

Q: What is your goal when you speak at events like these?

A: I hope I don’t mess up. I can’t plan my speech. I just talk. I came up during the times when there was segregation, and I share some of those stories.

Q: Did playing in that era make you stronger?

A: Yes. It gave me more incentive. What could I do if they called me a name? I can’t do nothing about it. I’m a minority. I didn’t have 1,000 people behind me. All it did was make me play harder. I wanted to show them I could play and get their respect that way.