The Post’s Steve Serby chatted with the Mets’ 23-year-old phenom first baseman.
Q: Your “I Like Ike” T-shirt?
A: I wouldn’t have done it unless there was a way that I could turn it into a positive thing.
Q: A charity for your dear, departed friend Mike Lio, who died last October.
A: I met him in middle school, and we were on every team together, all the way through senior in high school. We always had proms at the Lios’ house . . . we did everything. ’Cause I was always playing baseball all the time, he’d always be the one kinda keeping me involved with all my friends. They found like a growth in his neck . . . he had it removed, he was fine . . . and then it kinda grew back and it grew bigger, and then before you know it, he’s got cancer . . . and then all of a sudden it’s Ewing’s sarcoma, and like two, three weeks later, he dies. The craziest thing is the whole time, the kid is so positive about everything — I’d call him and I’d be, “I sucked today.” He’d be like, “Dude!” . . . He’s always been such a positive person toward me and what I was doing . . . and he was always so positive about what was going on with his life. He was just an amazing guy. There were probably about 5,000 people that showed up to his funeral, so that’s how cool the guy was.
Q: And you still think about him?
A: All the time.
Q: Is he an inspiration to you?
A: He definitely keeps my head on straight, that’s for sure. The kid fought so hard . . . even like the night before he died, he was so positive. Basically, if I’m ever going through a bad period, I just think about him. Baseball is not life.
Q: Best Mets moment?
A: Winning the series against the Yankees . . . the blue-and-orange lights in the city, you know? On the (Empire State Building) . . . it’s pretty cool.
Q: Whenever you hit a home run, you text your father (ex-Yankee reliever Ron Davis)?
A: I just write, “Got him.” It really started ’cause in Brooklyn I didn’t hit any. Now when I hit one, it’s a better feeling, you know?
Q: Your 450-foot home run?
A: Just put a good swing on it and hit it on the barrel.
Q: Describe your swing.
A: I kinda step in the bucket a little bit and drop my hands — those are things that you normally would not teach a kid to do. I’d say rhythmic.
Q: Meeting Jerry Seinfeld in spring training?
A: It was awesome. My whole family’s a huge “Seinfeld” fan. I asked him to sign a baseball for me. And his wife turned to him and said, “Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” (chuckles), and I said, “No chance.”
Q: Your father used to call you Rooster.
A: ’Cause I had red hair, and I woke up really early and woke up everyone else up, I guess, when I was real young.
Q: You lost your cell phone in a cab from the hotel you were living in before your first road trip?
A: Called it, and a doctor picked it up. I was like, “Who is this?” He’s like, “Ah, I found this cell phone in the back of a taxi, I got it and I still have it.”
Q: One of the clubbies retrieved it?
A: The cell phone got here two minutes before we left. It was awesome. Just my luck.
Q: You were bitten by a Shih Tzu.
A: I was in Idaho, and my dad’s buddy had a lake house, it’s like a cabin area with some jet skis . . . I think I was 7 . . . and we just got off the lake and the little Shih Tzu’s name was Happy. It was kinda cold that night so it was shivering, so I went over and I put a towel under it and I started rubbing its back, and I got my face too close and jumped over and ripped my lip open. Went to the hospital, got stitches. . . . I think it was like a four-hour drive to the nearest hospital, so my family was real happy about that.
Q: Bitten by a pit bull retrieving a football in a neighbor’s backyard?
A: As I was jumping over (the fence), the back door opens . . . pit bull runs out . . . and there’s a nice little girl, I’d say she’s like 19 years old. Huge freakin’ pit bull. And it was just staring at me, right? Got really close to me. I’m like, “Is your dog OK?” She says, “Oh yeah, he’s super sweet.” (Chuckles) And as she said that, the dog attacked me. And I’m 6-4 . . . the dog jumped up, and I blocked it, and it bit me on my thumb and hand, which was right next to my face. I had the football in my other hand, and I real quick threw the football over, and I kinda pushed him as he bit me, and then I scrambled up the wall real quick, and I could feel the dog trying to get me when I was getting over the fence.
Q: Yet you love dogs?
A: Huge dog fan. I’ve had dogs my whole life.
Q: You broke your arm in a four-wheeler accident?
A: Idaho again, age 9 . . . I’ve only been to Idaho twice, and I’ve gone to the emergency room both times. I was following this kid that lived out there who was about 14, and I went off a jump at a weird angle. I flew it into a tree, and when I hit the tree, the wheel snapped and snapped my right wrist. And then I had to pull it out of the tree and drive it all the way home like 10 miles.
Q: There’s a Holocaust story on your mother’s side.
A: My great aunt has a video of it, talks about her surviving Auschwitz. She was like a 13-year-old girl, survived it. Besides her, most of the family died in the Holocaust.
Q: Jerry Manuel?
A: Smooth.
Q: David Wright?
A: Captain.
Q: He’s not the captain.
A: But it feels like it to me, he’d be a captain kinda guy . . . leader, there ya go.
Q: Jason Bay?
A: He’s always relaxed.
Q: Jeff Francoeur?
A: Funny . . . he’s a goofball.
Q: The Cyclones are having an upside-down Ike Davis bobblehead Day Aug. 2 because of your catches over the dugout railing.
A: That’s awesome.
Q: Favorite NYC things?
A: I like to people-watch.
Q: Ideal mate?
A: I like athletic girls that care about their health. I like smart girls — you can’t have two dumb people. That was a joke . . . just down-to-earth . . . someone who could just go along with the flow a little bit.
Q: Have you found a New York pizza comparable to Frank Pepe’s white clam pie?
A: I went to the Brooklyn Bridge one (Grimaldi’s), that was pretty good.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Will Ferrell; Abraham Lincoln; Jessica Biel.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Shrimp gumbo.
Q: What’s it like being a cult hero?
A: I don’t know if I am or not.
Q: You don’t feel like one?
A: No.
Q: Career goals?
A: Play as long as hard as I can . . . that’s it. I don’t have any goals.
Q: Why is that?
A: Goals are sometimes unattainable.