Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407290024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Cox
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If the Buccaneers' right-handed relief pitcher were a bad sport, he might not have much nice to say about the burg by the Blue Ridge. Evans, however, comes on like a testimonial in a travel brochure.
``Hey, I like playing here,'' he said. ``I like this area.''
Evans is fortunate, considering this is part of the third year he's been plying his trade here. Every extra day a pro baseball player spends in quaint-but-doomed Municipal Field is one that won't be spent in the final approaches to the big leagues.
Little mystery, then, Evans almost refused a return ticket this year.
``I'd had a great spring training,'' he said. "I was throwing the ball really well and I thought I was going to make the AA club. Then when they told me I was coming back here, I thought about quitting right then. It looked to me like I wasn't going to be in the Pirates' plans."
Evans calmed down, though.
``Every kid in America wants to do what I'm doing,'' he said. ``I still get to put a uniform on every day. There are worse jobs to have than that.''
In large measure because of his perseverance, Evans has a better job with the Bucs than he had when the season began. When Marc Pisciotta was summoned to Carolina a few weeks back, Evans inherited his job as the team's closer.
``It's nice to have it,'' Evans said. ``It's good to have something to show for the innings you put in.''
Before the short-relief shingle hung outside Evans' bullpen office, the results he was getting with his rocket-launcher of a right arm were mixed at best. This year he's been good - the best of his career - with a 1.56 earned run average in 30 appearances. In the three seasons leading to this one, he's been somewhat less than that.
``I'm not blaming the Pirates,'' he said of his frustration with a lack of progress in the Pittsburgh organization. ``I've put up no numbers. I gave them no reason to promote me.''
Fortunately for Evans, the Pirates have continued to look at numbers that are the same ones that got Evans into pro ball in the first place: those on the radar gun. Evans can hum that potato.
``Potential - that's probably the only reason they've kept me around," he said.
It was that potential that got the scouts interested when they saw him pitching for the University of South Carolina at the Metro Conference tournament in Salem in 1991. Little did they know, until they asked, that Evans had not pitched much at all. He'd been a third baseman and a spot starter when he was at Jamestown (N.Y.) Community College.
South Carolina had wanted him for his arm, but his innings had been limited in his one season there because that arm was hurt.
``It was something I could have healed in three weeks,'' he said. ``Instead, I kept trying to come back too soon.''
By the time the Metro tournament started, Evans was back to full strength - and it showed. The Pirates invited him to a pre-draft tryout camp. Evans distinguished himself and was drafted in the 23rd round. Personal deliberations on whether to sign or not were not extensive.
Baseball wasn't Evans' favorite sport when he was growing up. No wonder. Spring in Buffalo, N.Y., where he was raised, often is indistinguishable from winter. Who wants to play baseball in that?
Evans' game was hockey.
``I love it,'' he said. ``There's still nothing better than that atmosphere of the hockey playoffs.''
Evans was realistic. Chances to make the big leagues in baseball are more extensive than they are in hockey.
Evans' chances of making the big leagues now sure look a lot better than they once did.
GONE HOME: Darren Hodges of Rocky Mount, the former Ferrum College right-hander, startled his employers in the New York Yankees' organization a few weeks back by retiring from the Class AA Albany-Colonie Yankees with a 5-1 record and 3.62 ERA.
Hodges was known to have been disappointed that he didn't get a chance to play for Class AAA Columbus this year.
``We talked about that when I last saw him,'' said Franklin County resident and Salem Bucs owner Kelvin Bowles. ``I told him it didn't matter whether he was pitching at AA or AAA, just go pitch.''
Hodges, who is living in Woodbridge with his wife, could not be reached, but he told Baseball America, ``I thought I could have started the season at Columbus, but that wasn't really part of my decision. I didn't see myself waiting a couple of more years to get a chance to go up.''
Because Hodges retired and was not released, the Yankees retain his rights, precluding him from signing with another organization.
by CNB