Page 31 - 1975 BoSox

24 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
on with Colorado as major-league hitting instructor in 1994. He was welcomed back to Boston in 2001, serving rst as a roving instructor and then, in 2002, as hitting coach for the Red Sox. Dewey is a frequent visitor to Red Sox functions and for many years — into 2014—serves as a player development consultant for the team.
It has often been said that Evans’ career statistics are similar to many in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bill James has written, “Dwight Evans is one of the most underrated players in baseball history.” He did so making the case for Evans to be brought into the Hall in a lengthy piece from Grantland in 2012.6
Others have suggested that Dwight Evans is already in another very special hall of fame for fathers. He and his wife Susan (Severson) met at Chatsworth High School and married at age 18. ey have a daugh- ter, Kirsten, and two sons—Tim and Justin—both of whom have su ered from neuro bromatosis, a condition described as “a sometimes dis guring genetic disorder characterized by soft tumors, usually benign, that grow on the nerves.”7 Tim, their rst-born, had already undergone 16 surgeries by the age of 16. He lost one eye. e pain throughout is said to be excru- ciating. eir lives have been a struggle, but Susan Evans said the family is a strong one: “ e No. 1 thing, Dwight and I have always had each other.”8 e couple bore the burden privately. Jim Rice, who played in the same out eld with Evans for so many years, hadn’t learned about their children’s condition until around 2008. Evans had gone public, to help fund e orts for research and treatment. He said he “would have traded his talent and fame in a heartbeat to have spared his boys.”9
Note: anks for James Forr for several suggestions which made this a better biography.
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Notes
Herb Crehan, Red Sox Heroes of Yesteryear (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2005), 250.
Ibid., 252. Ibid., 253.
Jennifer Latchford and Rod Oreste, Red Sox Legends (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2007), 122. Evans expanded on the catch at some length in an interview with David Laurila.
“It was the eleventh inning, and Ken Gri ey was on rst base. At the time, he was probably the fastest guy in the game. Joe Morgan is batting, and I’m thinking all kinds of scenarios:
`What if he hits it over my head? What if he hits it in the gap?’ I’m thinking that I have to go into the stands to catch it if I have to, because if we lose, there’s no tomorrow. All of these scenarios are going through my head.
“All great plays are actually made in your mind before they’re made in real time. You have to anticipate. A player like Ozzie Smith, with all the great plays that he made, was thinking about making them before they even happened. at’s what I would do in right eld.
“When Morgan hit the ball, it came right at me, but over my head. Normally a ball like that will start curving toward the right- eld line, going from my right to my left, so I would always go toward the line a little bit when I was running back. is ball did not curve...
“I‘m going back — the ball is behind me — and I actually lose sight of it. I lost the ball. I jumped up and threw my glove behind my head. at’s why I looked so awkward. I lost it
for a split second. at’s a scary moment in any player’s mind. Somehow, the ball landed in my glove. I was surprised.” e full interview is available at: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/ dwight-evans-hall-of-fame-individual/
New York Post, October 29, 2013. http://grantland.com/features/an-open-letter-mlb-hall-fame-
dwight-evans-rightful-place-cooperstown/
Randi Henderson, “Dwight Evans’ family ghts uncertainties of
disease,” Baltimore Sun, September 1, 1991. Ibid.
Laurel Sweet, Boston Herald, June 21, 2010. “If he had a bad day, he didn’t want (NF) to be an excuse,” explained Susan Evans. When Jim Rice began to learn what the Evans family had gone through, Dwight Evans told the Herald, “He looked right at me and said, ‘You never told me about this.’ en, he broke down.”
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