Evans Undoing Past : Boston’s Old Man Makes Some History, but Hopes Red Sox Have Different Ending Than in 1975 Series

To the Boston Red Sox, Dwight Evans is both right fielder and relic.

He has been a Fenway Park fixture for a baseball generation--14 years--and has witnessed all the Red Sox’s changes since 1973. He has seen the Marty Barretts come and the Butch Hobsons go. He has seen Red Sox teams blow 14 1/2-game leads, as the 1978 club did, and has seen written-off Red Sox teams rise above all sane expectations, as this club did.

He is also the Boston Red Sox’s last remaining link to their last moment of October glory, the 1975 World Series.

Evans batted .292 in that historic seven-game struggle with the Cincinnati Reds. And although everyone took second billing to Carlton Fisk in Game 6--remembered in Red Sox lore as The Game--Evans garnered a footnote when he set the stage for Fisk’s legendary home run, crashing into the right-field fence to snare a 12th-inning line drive off the bat of Joe Morgan.

But when Evans looks back on that series and that game, he does not recall the frills and the thrills.

“What I remember is that the Cincinnati Reds won the 1975 World Series,” Evans says.

This is what is known as the Red Sox Mentality. Evans belongs to a franchise that hasn’t been to the top since 1918. In Boston, the bottom line is all that matters.

And thanks in large part to Evans, the early line on the 1986 World Series is Red Sox 2, Mets 0. Boston, a 9-3 winner Sunday night in Game 2, is halfway to its first world’s championship in 68 years after an improbable two-game sweep in Shea Stadium.

Evans’ contribution? One heck of a fifth inning.

In the top of the inning, Evans swelled a 4-2 Boston advantage to 6-2 by lining a Dwight Gooden pitch into the left-field seats. The home run was a crippler for Gooden, who was out of the game three outs later.

And in the bottom of the inning, Evans helped minimize a New York uprising by robbing Lenny Dykstra of a leadoff double with a running, sliding catch in the gap in right-center field.

The home run and the catch will both likely wind up on the Red Sox 1986 season video--title still pending--but Evans, who has been here before, couldn’t even work up a shrug over them.

Evans was asked if the home run ranked among the hardest-hit balls he had ever delivered.

“You got to be kidding,” Evans said, finally looking up from the plate of pasta he was wolfing down. “That ball stung my hands. You want to know the truth? That ball would have been a single in Boston.

“I’m serious. The ball I hit last night (a 400-foot out to straightaway center in Game 1) was hit twice as hard. But because of the wind and the cold, it was a different ballpark last night. Tonight, it was more like a normal ballpark.”

And of the catch on Dykstra: “It was not a great catch. It was the result of just a little confusion between (center fielder) Dave Henderson and me.

“To the outfield, the center fielder is like what the shortstop is to the infield. Anything hit his way is his. But he didn’t give me any indication that he could get to the ball, so I ran over and ended up on my side.”

Reporters asked Evans if he were surprised--surprised by Boston’s 2-0 series lead, surprised by New York’s lack of offense, surprised by Gooden’s lack of anything resembling Dr. K standards.

The reporters should have known better.

“Someone asked me last night if we would be satisfied coming out of New York with one win,” Evans said. “No way. We’re going to fight and scratch and kick and punch.

“We’re underdogs and we love that position. Please, make us the underdog. With all the coverage the teams in New York receive, I don’t think you recognize how much talent we have.”

Evans said he had no strategy prior to his third at-bat against Gooden, which resulted in the home run.

“The first time up, he walked me,” Evans said. “The second time, man, he pitched me right out of the book. A breaking ball over the plate. A breaking ball and the bottom fell out of it. A fastball that busted me on the hands. Strike three.

“After that, I wasn’t looking for anything. Just something I could handle.”

The Red Sox went on to get 18 hits against Gooden and four New York relievers. Finally, that was something that did surprise Evans.

“Eighteen hits, huh?” Evans said. “Well, it sounds nice. I know that this game was a little more relaxing than last night’s--a 1-0 ballgame and the run was scored on an error.”

Evans thought about that for a moment and grinned.

“I’d like to thank Mike Torrez for teaching those guys how to pitch,” Evans quipped.

Mike Torrez, who pitched for both the Red Sox and the Mets, once was Boston’s version of Bert Blyleven--without the 15 victories. In other words, Mr. Gopher Ball.

Evans was asked one more time about 1975 and The Game and The Catch.

“It wasn’t the greatest catch I ever made,” he replied. “Only the most important.”