Page 30 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 23
His rst great season, 1981, unfortunately was marred by a seven-week player strike. Besides his fourth Gold Glove award, Dewey hit a new career high .296, and paced the league in home runs (22), walks, total bases, runs created, and OPS. Whereas he had typically hit seventh or eighth under Don Zimmer, new manager Ralph Houk recognized Evans’ great on-base skills and hit him second in the order for all four years he managed him. He nished third in the balloting for Most Valuable Player. After playing in the shadow of his more famous teammates for several years, Evans was now the team’s best player. Lynn and Carlton Fisk were gone, Carl Yastrzemski was nearing the end of the line, and Jim Rice would never again be the hitter he was in the late 1970s.
In 1982, Evans proved his resurgence was no uke, hitting .292 with 32 home runs and 98 RBIs, leading the league with a .402 on-base-percentage. After an o year in 1983 (.238, 22, 58), he had another big year in 1984, slugging 32 home runs, driving in 104 runs (remarkable for someone hitting second in the batting order), and leading the league in runs, runs created, extra-base hits, and OPS. On June 28, 1984, Evans doubled, tripled, made three outs, then singled in the 10th, and nally completed the cycle in style with a three-run walko homer in the bottom of the 11th o Edwin Nunez, for a 9-6 win over the Mariners.
e next two seasons were more of the same for Evans, as he hit 29 and 26 home runs, and generally was among the league leaders in walks and on-base-per- centage, and got more than his share of extra-base hits. New manager John McNamara moved Evans to leado in 1985, though he eventually started hitting him sixth in 1986. Leading o the game for the Red Sox on Opening Day 1986, on April 7 at Tiger Stadium, Evans hit a home run on the rst pitch of the entire major-league season. e Red Sox got back to the World Series in ‘86. Again, Evans’ bat was quiet in the Division Series (.214), but just as in 1975, he ratch- eted it up in the World Series, batting .308 with two homers and a team-best nine RBIs. In Game Seven, Evans led o the top of the second with a solo home run, for the rst run of the game.
Although the team struggled in 1987, it was another great season personally for Evans, with a .305 average (and a league-leading 106 walks), 34 HR, and 123 RBIs. Despite a big drop-o from the team, Evans nished fourth in the MVP voting.Turning 36 after the season, Evans had two more ne years in 1988 and 1989. In 1987, he began playing rst base quite a bit as the team had come up with a few young out elders, and by 1989 he was often the designated hitter.
After the 1990 season, in which he su ered serious back problems, limiting his playing time, the Red Sox declined to re-sign Evans and granted him his release on October 24. e Baltimore Orioles snapped him up on December 6 and he played in 101 games for Baltimore, batting .270 and acquitting himself well. Dewey received a tremendous ovation the rst time the O’s visited Fenway. Evans played his nal year in the majors in 1991. e Orioles re-signed him for 1992, but he was released at the end of spring training 1992.
With the exception of 1977 and 1980, Evans won the Gold Glove Award every year from 1976 through 1985.
Steady in the eld, steady at the plate, Evans played 20 seasons in all, ending with a .272 average, with 385 home runs, and 1,384 runs batted in. Evans was, in- terestingly, a better hitter in the second half of his career than in the rst half. A commonly-asked trivia question poses the query: Who hit more home runs in the American League than any other player during the 1980s? From 1980 through 1989, the answer was: Dwight Evans, with 256 homers in the decade-long stretch. He also led the AL in extra base hits over the same period of time.
Playing 19 years with the Red Sox (only Yaz played in more games) enabled Dwight Evans to rank among team leaders in a number of batting categories. No Red Sox elder approaches Evans in the number of Gold Gloves. e only major league out elders with more are Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline, and Ken Gri ey, Jr.— pretty good company.
After baseball, Evans worked for the White Sox in their minor-league system for a few years, then hooked