A Legendary Moment Leaves a Testing Legacy : Dave Henderson Finds He Must Now Live Up to His Dramatic Home Run

Friends who came to dinner and regularly visited his Seattle home over the winter begged to see the tape. One more time. Play it again, Dave.

“I guess I watched it about 100 times before I said, ‘That’s it! No more!’ ” Dave Henderson said. “I mean, two months of anything is enough.”

Even a good thing like the two-run homer he hit in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the American League playoff, that stunning two-run homer with the Angels needing only one more strike and one more out to win their first pennant.

Yes, that homer, which silenced an Anaheim Stadium crowd that was rocking in the aisles and lifted the Red Sox into a 6-5 lead in a game they won in the 11th, 7-6, on a sacrifice fly by the same Dave Henderson.

The Red Sox still trailed the Angels in the best-of-seven series, 3-2, but the Angels had to go to Boston for Games 6 and 7 with all the ghosts of their previous summers riding first class.

The Red Sox, riding the emotional momentum that Henderson had helped provide, buried the Angels in those final two games, then lost a seven-game World Series to the New York Mets in a reversal of the type the Angels had experienced in the playoffs.

Henderson?

The little miracle that began when he replaced injured center fielder Tony Armas in the fourth inning of that memorable Game 5 in Anaheim continued. He played all seven games of the World Series, batting .400. His 10 hits in 25 at-bats included 2 home runs, a double, a triple and 5 runs batted in.

Was this the same Dave Henderson who started only 7 games, appeared in 36 and batted .196 after being acquired from the Seattle Mariners in an Aug. 19 trade?

Was this the same Dave Henderson who had played off and on during parts of six seasons with the Mariners as people talked about wasted potential and confused him with teammate Steve Henderson?

The failure of the Red Sox to win either Game 6 or 7 in the Series might have deprived Henderson of a car as the MVP, but his Cinderella performance under October pressure seems to have put him in the driver’s seat of something more important--his career.

Unlike any of his previous springs, Henderson, 28, came to camp as his team’s center fielder.

He has only to cope with a continuing recovery from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in January and the challenge of prospect Ellis Burks before opening the season as the middle man in an outfield that includes Jim Rice and Dwight Evans.

The Red Sox chose not to pick up the option year on Armas’ contract, since that would have cost them $1 million. Instead, they paid the buyout fee of $100,000, putting Armas out of work. Did Henderson’s classic fall lead to the termination of Armas?

“I’m not sure if it was that or something else,” Henderson said. “I can only deal with the facts, which are that right now I’m the center fielder.

“It’s a great feeling, of course, to be part of a lineup like this, but I feel sorry for Tony. He’s a friend. I hope he gets a job.”

Said Boston General Manager Lou Gorman: “Tony was slowing up. He was showing signs of becoming injury prone. We obviously didn’t think he was still worth the salary we would have had to pay him, particularly when we have confidence in Dave.

“The postseason had to be a tremendous thrill for him. Could it be a catalyst? Of course. I’ve always felt he had the potential to be an outstanding player.”

Henderson has been portrayed as a throw-in in the trade that also brought shortstop Spike Owen to Boston, but although Owen provided reliability at a critical position down the stretch, Gorman said that a comparable reason for the trade was Henderson’s potential at a position where Armas’ future seemed tenuous.

“We weren’t the only team after Henderson,” Gorman said. “The Dodgers were also interested.”

Reached at Vero Beach, Fla., Dodger Vice President Al Campanis said that in probing Henderson’s August availability, he was responding to the club’s injuries and the recommendation of scout Mel Didier.

“We were too late,” Campanis said. “Boston already had the inside track. I didn’t know much about Henderson, but Mel liked him a lot.”

Didier had been working for Gorman when the latter was the first general manager of the expansion Mariners. The sculptured Henderson, a 6-foot 2-inch, 220-pound football star at Dos Palos High near Fresno, was the team’s first No. 1 selection in the June draft of 1977.

In his six seasons with the Mariners, Henderson never appeared in more than 139 games. He hit a career-high 17 homers in 1983, drove in a career-high 68 runs in 1985, and was batting a career-high .276 when traded after 103 games last year.

“Dave is a great kid, a quality youngster, but he tends to be too easygoing,” Gorman said. “He fell into a rut in Seattle. He became complacent. Instead of setting goals and pushing himself to do better, he was satisfied hitting .250 with his 14 home runs.

“I mean, we’re talking outstanding potential here. We’re talking about a guy who should be hitting .265, .270 with 18 to 20 homers, 70 to 80 RBIs and 20 to 25 stolen bases, besides being an outstanding center fielder.

“He hasn’t come close to that yet, but coming here, exposed to a different environment and work ethic and surrounded by highly motivated people like (Don) Baylor and Rice and Evans, I’m hopeful now Dave will go after it.”

Maybe, maybe not.

Henderson sat at his locker after reporting on the day before the regulars were scheduled.

All of the other starters and lineup contenders had been working out for several days.

A reporter asked about Gorman’s contention that he needs to be pushed and motivated.

Henderson shook his head and said he needs to be left alone and allowed to play.

He said the synthetic surface of the Seattle Kingdome contributed to soreness and fatigue.

He said the constant changes in management and playing personnel contributed to chaos.

“I went through seven managers, three general managers and a couple (club) presidents,” he said. “I probably had at least 40 different teammates my first three years there.

“And every time there was a change in managers, it was like spring training. It was like you’d have to start all over again. I mean, there are ups and downs in every career. Sometimes I felt I deserved to be on the bench and other times I felt I was (being punished).

“Everybody has a week’s slump now and then, but should you go to the bench for a month because of it? That happened a lot in Seattle. I played regularly for three or four months in ‘83, but I was never ever penciled in as the center fielder at the start of a season.”

Now, of course, he is.

“He deserves a shot at it after the postseason he had,” Manager John McNamara said. “Whether he can play every day is the question. He never has, but he’s never been flanked by the type of ability and experience we have here. He shouldn’t feel the weight of responsibility he may have in Seattle.”

Said Henderson: “Everybody talks about the postseason as some kind of turning point and maybe it will be, but the turning point for me was just being traded here. Stability. That’s the key. I mean, these guys have played for 10 to 12 years. They know what they’re doing. The organization knows where it’s going.

“I worked out with some of the Seattle players in the Kingdome during the winter. Scott Bradley. Alvin Davis. Mark Langston. Karl Best. A couple of them are wondering when they’re going to get lucky like I did and get their escape clause.”

Escape is one thing. Redemption is another.

The game of Oct. 12 began as most others had for Henderson. He was on the bench.

Then Armas twisted an ankle and Henderson went to center. The Red Sox were leading, 2-1, in the sixth when Bobby Grich hit a towering drive to left center. Henderson went to the fence, leaped, had the ball in his glove, then lost it beyond the barrier when his left wrist struck the top of it.

A two-run homer and a 3-2 Angel lead.

“I thought I had it all the way and still feel I should have caught it,” Henderson said the other day. “It was a hurt, standing out there and thinking that I probably cost us the game, that we wouldn’t be going back to Boston.”

The feeling soon intensified. Henderson struck out to end the seventh with the tying run at first. The Angels had extended their lead to 5-2 by the time Don Baylor hit a two-run homer in the ninth, making it 5-4.

Then Mike Witt popped up Dwight Evans for the second out only to be lifted by Manager Gene Mauch, who wanted left-hander Gary Lucas to pitch to Rich Gedman. The rest is etched in the memory of every Angel fan old enough to know the meaning of second guess.

Lucas hit Gedman with a pitch, bringing in Donnie Moore to face Henderson, who took the count to 2-and-2, fouled off two pitches and then hit his dramatic home run, changing the course of October history.

Looking back, Henderson said he was surprised to see Witt leave.

“He’s handled me pretty well at times, but it was Gedman who forced the move by the way he had hit Witt earlier in the game,” Henderson said. “I’ve done pretty well off Moore, but that’s one of those things you can’t explain. I just hit him a little better than I hit Witt.

“To say the least, I was happy to see Witt go.”

Henderson, of course, said he was then hoping that Gedman would get on any way he could.

“Once Lucas had hit him, I tried to get to the plate as quickly as I could,” Henderson said, smiling. “I was hoping Mauch might forget and leave the left-hander in. I took about three steps before they were on their way from the dugout to pull him.”

Of the ensuing confrontation with Moore, Henderson said: “I hadn’t been playing enough to think about anything more than making contact. I was hanging by a thread when I fouled off those two pitches at 2-and-2. The second foul came on a fastball that I’d normally have hit for a home run if my swing hadn’t been so screwed up by not playing much.

“Donnie knew that had been my pitch, but he didn’t know how screwed up I was, so he then went to a forkball and made a pretty good pitch with it. It was low and away. I’d have never hit it if I had been in any kind of groove.

“I mean, it was almost as if I was swinging blindly and got lucky.”

Henderson numbed the crowd and the Angels by hitting it over the left-field fence to put Boston ahead.

A distant look comes to his eyes when he is asked to reflect on his emotions.

“I don’t know that I’ll ever experience anything that will top it, but it’s hard to describe my actual feelings as I was going around the bases,” he said.

“I mean, a lot of things flashed through my head besides the fact that I had just hit the biggest home run of my career. I kept thinking about how I had got there and some of the things that had happened along the way.”

What Henderson calls the greatest game he has ever seen was not over. It was tied, 6-6 in the 11th, when he batted with the bases loaded and no outs and ripped a drive to deep right center that scored the winning run.

“It might have been more than a sacrifice fly if Gary Pettis hadn’t been out there,” Henderson said. “But I was still just scuffling at the plate and hoping to make contact, hoping to get it in the air.”

Almost two weeks later, in the 10th inning of World Series Game 6, Henderson experienced a moment comparable to the ninth inning of playoff Game 5. It was the result of a lead-off homer that gave Boston a 4-3 lead that became 5-3 before the Mets rallied for three runs with two outs in the bottom of the 10th. There would have been no Game 7 if Henderson’s homer had stood up.

“I thought it was over right then,” he said. “And I thought it was over for sure when we tacked on that other run.

“I can be happy with my performance in the World Series, but winning is everything. To lose it like we did was devastating to everyone.”

Time eases the pain and brings new perceptions.

Henderson became an instant celebrity in Boston but returned immediately to the comparative anonymity of his family life in Seattle, rejecting a long list of banquet and appearance invitations.

“I had spent two straight months in a hotel room after the trade,” he said. “All I wanted to do was get home and stay there.”

He eventually even tired of the tape--but not the exhilaration that accompanied it.

“What the postseason proved to me is that I can produce and produce big. It proved to me that I can control my emotions in times of stress and pressure. Until you go through a series of events like that, you can’t be sure of how you’re going to handle it.

“I’m proud of myself. I think I handled it pretty well.”