Ben Davis tries to catch on as a pitcher

Ben Davis signaled fastball, and the pitch whizzed through the air, tailed right, and smacked the mitt. Davis flashed the slider sign, and the ball moved straight and then bent and dipped, settling into the glove just before touching the ground.

On a minor-league field on the Camden riverfront, the Ben Franklin Bridge peering over the outfield wall, the bullpen session went on. Davis, the former Malvern Prep catcher, called the pitches, just as he had done so many times since he was the No. 2 pick in the 1995 major-league draft.

Only this was different, his career - short-circuited by a lack of hitting in both the major and minor leagues - having crossed a bridge of its own.

Davis was dictating pitch selection in the pregame warm-up from the mound. Six seasons after taking his last big-league swings, he is a starting pitcher for the independent Camden Riversharks, aiming for his first full season on the mound after pitching briefly in 2008 and getting injured last year.

Davis, 33, played with three major-league teams from 1998 to 2004, batting .237 in 486 games, and has been with eight minor-league clubs since. Not ready to give up baseball, he reinvented himself after the Baltimore Orioles cut him in 2008.

"I was with Baltimore in triple A, and I was just not hitting at all," Davis said. "I had a very good opportunity there to play, and just really didn't take advantage of it.

"I came home and I was like, you know, I don't think any club is going to pick me up to be a catcher. So I figured why don't I start pitching. I know I still had a pretty good arm, and I could probably throw strikes."

Davis had a cannon of a right arm when he was at Malvern Prep and became only the second Philadelphia-area player to be chosen as high as No. 2 in the major-league draft. (Reggie Jackson was the other, in 1966.) When San Diego selected the catcher, Padres scout Rene Mons called Davis' arm the best he had seen.

Davis throws a fastball (four-seam and two-seam) in the 88- to 92-m.p.h. range, as well as a slider, curveball and change-up. He is 2-4 with a 6.95 ERA. But take away a two-game stretch last month in which he allowed 16 earned runs over four innings, and he would be 2-2 with a 4.14 ERA. He has struck out 30 and walked nine in 451/3 innings.

"His stuff, when he has kept it down, has been dominant at times," said Von Hayes, the former Phillie who is the Riversharks' manager. "He had two or three starts in a row where he was just pounding the strike zone, low in the zone. His ball was moving, both cutting and sinking. He was mixing in his breaking balls and his change-up, and was very, very effective."

The Riversharks play in the Atlantic League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. Jeff Scott, Camden's pitching coach, says competition in the league ranges from double-A to triple-A level.

But because the Atlantic League teams pay their players' salaries - as opposed to the major-league affiliates, whose wages are paid by the parent clubs - the money isn't nearly the same.

Davis says he is earning $1,800 a month for the five-month season.

That's pocket change compared to his start in pro baseball.

The 6-foot-3, 195-pound switch-hitter was batting .507 with six home runs and 37 RBIs in 71 at-bats for Malvern when he was drafted by the Padres (15 picks ahead of a youngster named Roy Halladay). Davis - now an inch taller and 40 pounds heavier - signed quickly in 1995, receiving a $1.3 million bonus.

Davis was an all-star in double A and got one late-season at-bat with the Padres in 1998. He shared catching duties and batted .244 and .223 over the next two seasons, and was promoted to full-time in 2001. He hit .239 with 11 homers and 57 RBIs in 138 games.

Traded that off-season to Seattle, he played about 21/2 seasons with the Mariners and then a half-season with the Chicago White Sox, his average falling from .259 in 2002 to .207 in '04.

The hitting struggle continued in the minors, but Davis broke out of his slump with Camden in 2007. He batted .331 and drove in 19 runs in 36 games, and the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him and sent him to Las Vegas of the triple-A Pacific Coast League.

In his first at-bat, Davis hit a confidence-building, pinch-hit home run. But he didn't homer again for the 51s, batting .218 in 36 games.

"And that was in the PCL, which is a great league to hit in," Davis said. "I just couldn't barrel balls up."

"Eighteen to 25 homers, 80 to 90 RBIs, I'm sure that's what he wanted. But it never came together for him," said Mike Easler, the former major-league outfielder and Davis' hitting coach with Las Vegas.

When Davis batted, Easler said, "his body was coming up, his hips and his legs. He was kind of an upright hitter, and when he swung, he stayed upright. He didn't use his legs more."

Davis wasn't any more productive the next season with triple-A Norfolk in the Orioles' system.

"I was just grounding out, popping up, not really hitting the ball on the barrel," he said. "And it got to a point where it was so frustrating. It was dominating my life."

It was time for a 180-degree, 60-foot-6-inch change. Davis decided to pitch, something he had done occasionally for Malvern 13 years earlier.

In the summer of 2008, Davis contacted Paul Motta, the 40-year coach at Delaware County Community College whom Davis called probably the most renowned pitching coach in the area, and asked for help. Motta said he was "totally surprised" by Davis' mound presence and the way he moved toward the plate, although the coach had him stride farther from the rubber during his delivery.

Motta, 74, also worked on the release of Davis' two-seam fastball, and the release point of his curve. After about five sessions, Motta invited him to join his Chester team in the Delco League for a few weeks.

By the end of the season, Davis was pitching for Camden. In six games, three of them starts, he compiled a 3.00 ERA. The next spring, he was a closer with the Cincinnati Reds' single-A affiliate when he woke up one morning and couldn't lift his right arm. He underwent shoulder surgery in July and missed the rest of the 2009 season.

After recovering, he again sought Motta's help.

"I said, 'Ben, jeez, you're throwing the ball better now than I ever saw you throw,' " Motta recalled.

Davis once said he would play baseball until he was unable. Asked if that were still true, he hedged. Davis, who has the initials of his parents and brother tattooed on his left biceps, has a family of his own now: a wife, and three children ranging in age from 1 to 4. His wife is a stay-at-home mom, and he has been supporting his family and their 61-acre Chester County farm by dipping into savings.

Davis has never taken a college course, on campus or online, and says that - although he never says never - he "would never go back to school." (He also says he doesn't know how to use the Internet or e-mail.) He would love another chance with a major-league affiliate, and if that fails, he might look into coaching.

"If I could go to an organized club and obviously make more money, I would do it," Davis said. "This is just hard. It's hard financially. . . . The money is running lower than I'd like it to, and it's hard to sustain with the salary like this.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm having a ball with these guys. These are a great bunch of kids in here. They still enjoy playing baseball. I still love playing baseball. That's what makes it worthwhile to put the uniform on every day."