Darrell Wayne Evans (born May 26, 1947)
Played for: Atlanta Braves (1969–1976, 1989), San Francisco Giants (1976–1983),
Detroit Tigers (1984–1988)
Darrell Evans (Baseball Reference [Player] — Third baseman / First baseman (3B / 1B)
2,687 games, slash-line of .248/.361/.431; 1,354 RBIs, 2,223 hits, 414 HR, 119 OPS+, 58.7 WAR
2× All-Star (1973, 1983)
World Series champion (1984)
AL home run leader (1985)
Baseball historian Bill James famously described Evans as "the most underrated player in baseball history." It occurred to me I haven't covered a baseball unsung hero in a while, so why don't we dwell on the story of a player who surely would've been more loved if he played just a few years later? Evans was born in Pasadena, California to a sports-connected family: his dad played semipro baseball and his mother played pro softball. He excelled at John Muir High in baseball and basketball before going to Pasadena City College. He actually was drafted multiple times by MLB teams (1965, 1966, 1967, it was a different time) before finally landing upon the Kansas City Athletics in the 1967 draft. However, he suffered a sore arm (not helped by service in the Marine Corps Reserves) by 1968, he was left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft that saw him selected by the Atlanta Braves. Evans did break into the major leagues in 1969, although the 1969 and 1970 seasons saw him play in just 24 total games with 20 hits. Crediting the influence of Eddie Mathews (the former third base icon for the Braves who served as coach in 1971-72 before becoming manager from 1972-1974) for aiding in his swing and defense, Evans would become the third baseman for the Braves on a fulltime basis in 1972 (after playing 72 in 1971) and did so for the next four years. On May 29, 1971, Evans hit his first home run, doing so off against the Cardinals and Bob Gibson in St. Louis. In 89 games of the 1971 season, he hit .242 while walking 39 times to striking out 54 times. Evans had a neat year with 1973: he hit .281 with career highs in home runs (41), RBIs (104), hits (167), and walks (124). With Hank Aaron hitting 40 and Davey Johnson hitting 43, the '73 Braves became the first team with three 40-HR hitters on the same team (meanwhile, the team went 76-85-1).
Evans played a tiny part of baseball history on April 8, 1974: when the Braves played the Dodgers in Atlanta, Evans led off the 4th inning with a groundball error. The next batter was, well, Hank Aaron, who hit a deep home run to left field for his historic 715th home run. Evans didn't get named an All-Star that year, but he did have a league-leading 126 walks to 88 strikeouts with 25 home runs. He had 105 walks in 1975, the last season before he took a stopover in playing other positions (1976 at first base, 1977 in left field). He batted .173 for Atlanta in 44 games before being traded to the San Francisco Giants on June 13 (with Marty Perez) for Jake Brown, Mike Eden, Willie Montañez and Craig Robinson. In 92 games with San Francisco, he batted .222 but at least had ten home runs (in contrast, he had one with Atlanta). In his first full season with the Giants, he batted .254 and had 17 home runs (of note is yet another walks over strikeout season: 69 to 50). By the time the season was over, Evans was 30 years old and had a total of 147 home runs with 493 RBIs and a batting average of .248. Some things, well, would change.
Sure, the Giants didn't reach the postseason with Evans, but he cultivated a solid enough part of his career there, playing 1,094 of his 2,687 games in San Francisco. He had more walks than strikeouts in each of his eight seasons with the team (peaking with 105 walks in his 1978 season) and even garnered one more All-Star season in 1983 with a 30-HR year and a .277 batting average in 142 games. He entered the free agent market in 1984 and amidst a feeding frenzy, he selected the three-year deal of Detroit, who got their "big name" guy for roughly $2 million; he would play first base/DH for the team. Evans was 36 going on 37 when he entered Detroit. Age looked to be against that year, where he batted .232 with 16 home runs while, again, walking more than striking out (77-70). He finally saw the postseason that year due to, well, being on the 1984 Detroit Tigers, but he had just four hits in eight postseason games as Detroit won the championship over San Diego. Evans would have a banner year in 1985, hitting 40 home runs to become both the oldest guy to hit 40 in the AL (a mark not topped for three decades) and the first to hit 40 home runs in the AL and NL (when the leagues were treated as, well, separate entities). Not bad for a year where he struck out/walked the same amount (85); of note is that he joined the 300 HR club on July 28, 1985. He continued to defy the odds a little while longer in age before HR beauty, hitting 29, 34, and 22 in his final three seasons for Detroit, which saw him reach the 400 HR mark on September 20, 1988. Evans apparently had a few key lessons to stick around for so long without even one trip to the injury list: not going down to the weight room after a game (instead spending that time to work on the mental side), aiming for eight hours of sleep, concise batting practice sessions that worked on quality over quantity, and fitness that basically saw him run a few miles a day six days a week. He played his final year as a free agent for Atlanta in 1989, hitting 11 home runs in 107 games that saw him bat .207. He hit 230 home runs in the decade of the 1980s, 6th best for all players in that time. In total, only Mike Schmidt. Reggie Jackson, and Dave Kingman hit more home runs than Evans from 1969 to 1989. He was released by the team in 1990, narrowly avoiding being one of the few players to play in four decades. Evans subsequently spent a number of years coaching and managing in the minor leagues (with the Golden Baseball League, he won the 2007 title with Long Beach).
Evans was used all over the place for fielding: 1,442 games at third base, 856 at first base, 22 at shortstop, 83 at left field, 253 at DH, and a few games as pinch hitter/runner. When Evans had his fifth 100-walk season in 1987 (having previously done so in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1978), he was one of just 24 players with at least five 100-walk seasons (nowadays, 39 people are in that club), which coincidentally was the same amount as his idol, Eddie Mathews. He had 19 seasons with at least ten home runs, which actually is pretty good for those who favor consistency* and also is a thing that only seventeen other players have done in MLB history. Only Carlton Fisk had more home runs than Evans for guys after turning 40 years old. For the sabermetrics crowd, it should be noted that for guys with a batting average under .250, Evans managed to collect 58.7 wins above replacement (WAR), second only to Graig Nettles. For OPS+ for ballpark/league adjusted numbers, Evans and his 119 OPS+ actually is 13th. Nobody walked more times (1605) than Evans when it comes to guys who hit under .250, nobody had more runs than Evans (1344) and only Nettles had more hits than Evans (as for home runs, Adam Dunn and Dave Kingman have more than Evans). In his one year on the BBWAA ballot, he had 1.7 percent of the vote in 1995. At least the Giants inducted him into their team Wall of Fame, doing so in 2008. A career that spanned three decades, 400 home runs, 2,000 hits, and a world championship is still a pretty nice story.
On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Darrell Evans to the Hall.
N O T E S
*Gene Tenace, hmm...
*Among active players, Andrew McCutchen leads the way with 17.
