http://www.projo.com/opinion/columnists/content/CL_achorn21_06-21-11_L8OLPG1_v16.40f53.html
Edward Achorn:
Time to put Dwight Evans in the Hall of Fame
01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 21, 2011
By Edward Achorn
Red Sox outfielder Dwight Evans
Journal archives
The financial rewards for 20 years of work researching and writing a book about a 19th Century baseball star, I have discovered, are relatively meager. But the effort did have its compensations.
During spring training, I arrived in my office at The Journal one morning to a blinking red light and this message: “Hi, Ed, this is Dwight Evans. I used to play for the Boston Red Sox.”
Which is a little like getting a call from Pablo Picasso saying that he used to paint.
Mr. Evans was one of the greatest players in history, a dogged and powerful hitter, and a brilliant and elegant right fielder with a phenomenal arm.
I saw his very first game at Fenway Park from the right field grandstand — Sept. 16, 1972 — when he substituted for Reggie Smith and made a beautiful diving catch right before my eyes. My dad, sitting next to me, told me to watch him: He was going to be a great one.
I saw him in “The Greatest Game Ever” — Game Six of the 1975 World Series. From my vantage point in the very last row behind third base, I watched the Cincinnati Reds’ Joe Morgan blast a ball deep into the murky shadows of right field, and saw Dwight, in a blur, dash to the fence, leap to make an improbable one-handed catch, and double up Ken Griffey at first base. It was like a dream sequence.
And here Dwight was on my voice mail, telling me he had read “Fifty-nine in ’84,” loved it, and found its depiction of early baseball fascinating. (He had taken the time to track me down and tell me this, I later learned, even though a close family member was going through a health crisis.) I called him back and we had a great chat.
Needless to say, I was thrilled to discover that Dwight Evans was a gentleman of the first order as well as a great star — something all too rare in our world of uncouth celebrity sports brats. It was like the time I found Bobby Orr standing around, unannounced and unattended, in a little waiting room off my paper’s newsroom. He had brought in some of his stuff for a charity auction and was reluctant to interrupt us while we were so busy working.
Happily, I got to share with Mr. Evans one of my pet peeves: He belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and would be there if the juiced-up statistics of the corrupt, steroids-pumping crowd had not blinded writers to his achievements.
Everybody knows Mr. Evans was the best right fielder of his time, with eight Gold Glove awards. What is not as well understood is what a dominant hitter he was, particularly when measured against the men of his pre-steroids generation.
Bill James, the guru of baseball statistics, calls Mr. Evans “one if the most underrated players in baseball history.” And Patrick Languzzi, of Maynard, Mass., is such a zealous advocate for enshrinement that he has written an extensive analysis of Mr. Evans’s qualifications for the Hall, broken into six sections, with tabs for easy reference.
The numbers are stunning. From 1980 through 1989, Mr. Evans ranked:
• First in all of Major League Baseball in runs created (1,067), ahead of Hall of Famers Ricky Henderson, Eddie Murray, Robin Yount and Mike Schmidt.
• First in MLB in extra-base hits (605), ahead of Messrs. Yount, Murray, Schmidt and Hall of Famer George Brett.
• First in the American League in home runs (256), ahead of Mr. Murray and Hall of Famers Jim Rice and Cal Ripken.
During that decade he was the only player in Major League Baseball to post nine consecutive seasons of 20 or more home runs — back when players were normal-looking, not juiced-up monsters, and home runs meant something.
Dwight Evans is the only player eligible for the Hall of Fame not to be enshrined who falls among one of only 13 players in baseball history to have at least 2,400 hits, 1,450 runs, 1,375 walks and runs batted in, 480 doubles and 385 home runs. This list includes such greats as: Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Mel Ott and Carl Yastrzemski.
Indeed, every other MLB player who led his decade in extra base hits, from the turn of the century through 1989, has been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. It’s quite a list: Honus Wagner (1900s); Tris Speaker (1910s); Ruth (1920s); Jimmie Foxx (1930s); Stan Musial (1940s and ’50s); Aaron (1960s); Reggie Jackson (1970s). Mr. Evans stands alone in being denied entry.
All these numbers can make your head spin.
What they really mean is that, although Mr. Evans seemed low-key and rarely thumped his chest, he was unquestionably one of the most dominant players of his era, not only defensively but offensively. And he did it without steroids.
Such players should be in the Hall of Fame. And it would be nice to see one of the good guys get his just reward.
How about it, ye gods of baseball?
Edward Achorn (
eachorn@projo.com) is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor.