Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 75

this section Trying again: Maybe predicting award-winners will be easier. Gary Santaniello's column, Page 8F. pulls out SUNDAY, April 6, 1986 7F rS fell If tl (I DETROIT FREE PRESS jJ 0 7J 9 A dim ibes Iffy the Dopostor fgers ciimnging vi Iffy's sorry, but the roar will be a snore Iffy the Dopester began covering the Tigers for the Free Press in 1934. For 20 years, the Great Prognosticator scribbled on politics, city life and business, but his first love remained Detroit's baseball club, lffy's age is a closely guarded secret. although he claims to have taught Ty Cobb to bunt and Babe Ruth to drink, and rumors persist he helped Alexander Cart wright draft the original strike zone.

Iffy has agreed to come out of retirement this season to "set matters straight" every Sunday. Watch for his reports in Baseball Week. OK, students, the visage in the photo may not be as handsome as Mitch Albom, as suave as Charlie Vincent, as youthful as George Puscas. Heck, if you'd rather breeze by this comer to ogle the Jason's ad, HI understand, But Iffy offers you something those folks can't. (Actually, I can't attest to what they 2T jJ offer at Jason's, since the last time I tried to cross the border, 31 of those over-eager Customs Cossacks pounced on my Rambler with the enthusiasm of Imelda Marcos at a shoe sale.) What this wizened geezer offers is experience, history and the knowledge that rounders existed long before creeping Stein-brennerism polluted our pastime.

Hey, I haven't just followed the Tigers since they've been peddling pizza. I was witnessing the annual search for a third baseman when Tom Brookens' great-great grandfather was hobbling grounders in the Pennsylvania coal mines. I was in the bleach ers of Bennett Park (don't tell me they' changed the name) back in 1898, the day -fiS! skinflint owner G.A. VanDerbeck brain-stormed the team nickname after getting a good price on black-and-orange socks. Ive seen stars and slugs come and go.

Guys like Matt Batts, Stinky Davis, Tabasco Elber- feld, Liz Funk, Piano Legs Hickman, Baby Doll Jacobson, Lollipop Killefer, Jerry Lumpe, Boob McNair, Prince Oana, King Tutwiler, .11 Frw Prats Photo by MARY SCHROEOER At 38, Darrell Evans, the major league home run champion in 1985, must prove himself again in 1986. Coot Veal, Yats Wuestllng, Squanto Wilson, Slim Love, Boots Poffenberger and Vito Va-lentinetti. I don't want to say lffy's been around, but Jim Campbell and I are the only two guys who still think "Hold That Tiger Rag" belongs in the Top 20 with a bullet. And that why I'm here today to break the bad news. The magic isn't back.

The boys ain't blessed. This is not the year. Evans, a sensitive leader, is suddenly focus of conflict Now before you go tossing burrs in Iffy beard, realize I'm as big a Bengals fan as they come. I've slopped down my share of low-alcohol beer and eyeballed the field from obstructed-view seats. I ve chanted By JOE LAPOINTE Fre Preti Sports Writer "Loooooooo" for Whitaker, Skizas and Blue.

I've danced the Michigan Avenue tango with Bubba Helms. So when I cast doubts, realize they come contro- straight from my pacemaker-driven heart. 1 The con versy swir that led I worry about this year model. The Tigers have power and speed and about 65 capable starting pitchers. They've got lffy's favorite, Kirk Gibson, coming back.

The weight of Gibby's checkbook may slow him on the base paths, but to those who worry his oil-shiek-' salary will turn him fat and lazy, let Iffy suggest the day Gibson loses his fire is the day Meryl Streep turns ugly. But there are flaws. The Tigers field like elephants trying to juggle marbles. Doug Baker. Dave Collins and Chuck cary won make anyone forget Home Run Baker, Rip Collins and Harry Caray.

And there are so many wing injuries in camp (Trammell, Gib about Darrell Evans last week was strangely out of character for a player who usually stands out as the good-karma man of the Tigers' clubhouse. In two seasons here, Evans the major league home run champion last year with 40 has played the role of team elder. He has helped to maintain equilibrium on a club that won the World Series in 1984, slipped back to third place in 1985 and is expected to contend again in 1986. Evans, who begins his 20th professional season and 18th in the major leagues Monday when the Tigers open at home against Boston, is the oldest and most experienced player on a mature and experienced team. Far from being the stereotypical, one-dimensional, hired jock, he is a complex man: open-minded, emotional, Interested in relationships inside and outside the ball club, as well as labor issues, politics, human rights and life beyond mankind.

The men with whom he lives, travels, eats and works for eight months a year say he is among the most respected players because he knows how to act, on and off the field, and how to keep his cool. So it surprised many people that Evans and manager Sparky Anderson Exchanged angry public statements through the media last week. When Anderson announced to reporters but not to Evans that Evans had lost his first-base job and would be only a des son, Hernandez, Grubb) that Ernest Hemingway might be tempted to title a chapter about this year's team, "A Farewell to Arms." Darrell Evans, 40," his wife, LaDonna, said with more than a hint of frustration. They are upbeat people, but susceptible to gloomy moods when Darrell's career troubles him. Darrell says his wife can watch him on TV in a road game and judge by his face and mannerisms that something is wrong.

When he calls her on the phone afterward, she'll say right away, "What's wrong?" and he'll respond, "You could tell, couldn't you?" They describe their closeness as "vibes" and go one step beyond. LaDonna says a psychic once told her that she and Darrell knew one another in a previous life and were related. She believes it. "I might have been his mother," she said. To call Darrell and LaDonna Evans "open-minded" is an understatement.

They are curious about many things and willing to believe In what others would label fantasy. They say they saw an unidentified flying object on June 10, 1982, in Pleasanton, Calif. They believe intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. Evans, without prompting, turned to the subject of the UFO in an interview this spring in Lakeland, Fla. It was red and green with white lights in the back, he said.

Evans has described it as "a flying wing." "I don't know why I saw a UFO, why I got a chance to see it, why it presented itself to me," Evans said. "When I was a 12-year-old kid, I used to get books about UFOs and hide them because I didn't want everyone to know what I was reading." Evans theorizes that beings who pilot UFOs may have evolved beyond the intelligence of earthlings and may have developed advanced methods of resolving crises that bring humans into conflict. "If they come in peace, it would be the ultimate example they could show us how they got through it in peace," Evans said. "They must have gotten to the crisis point where they saw that by getting angry, the rewards are not there. Why can't we get to that point? Why can't we get to the point where there isn't a fear of somebody taking something away?" When he speaks on this subject, he becomes animated, clenching and unclenching his hands, sometimes pounding one fist into an open palm.

His eyes open wide, brows raised. He is See DARRELL EVANS, Page 9F Let's hope lffy's wrong, the ngers win tM Vjr the sweepstakes this fall, I'll gladly down a diet of scrapple, head cheese and czarnina as penance. But for now, here is what my tarot cards say: NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST Iffy can't see the Cards, featuring all those little chop- ignated hitter against right-handed pitchers, Evans responded with indignation. hitters with limbs the width of Slim Jims, repeating. I'll take the Mets, assuming Dwight "I don't know why and I havent heard why," he said.

"I Gooden wins 30 games, Darryl Strawberry hits 50 homers and Keith Hernandez passes 70 percent of his urinalyses. w- can't imagine this happening anywhere else. How can you hit 40 home runs and then be taken out of the lineup? I just wish somebody would tell me why." NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST This divi Anderson responded by saying, "Guys that bitch about not sion is dominated by strangely named teams in Day-Glo uniforms who bunt on AstroTurf in playing don't get none of my tears I would suggest that anyone bitching about lack of playing time right now had better AP Pholo stop. Because if you know my history, you know they won't last cavernous stadiums so late at night that their box scores rarely make the morning editions. long." You should not care about these teams.

Anderson stressed that Evans turns 39 next month (May 26) Darrell Evans, getting a high-five from Kirk Gibson after one of Evans' 40 home runs last season: "How can you hit 40 home runs and then be taken out of the lineup? I just wish somebody would tell me why." and that he must make room for younger players. See IFFY THE DOPESTER, Page 6F "He 11 always be Darrell Evans, 38, Darrell Evans, 39, SI OFF i. pm. HSj'j Rnton Boston Boston t. at Clev.

at Clev. I at Clev. "Si. Channel LJILJ LJu L1 L1JPASS hJ.J Channel 4 jtjjfli pmm Warn pssm ii Jack Morris aets his On this date last season, The Tigers beat the Red Dan Petry will make his Walt Terrell will open the Manager Sparky The Tigers hit 14 homers seventh ODenlna Day start the Tigers opened with a 5-4 Sox, seven games to six, In start of '86 against Red series against the Indians, Anderson has a 46-40 against the Indians in 85; anainst Red Sox's Bruce victory over Cleveland and 1985, and split six games at Sox standout right-hander who were 4-2 against the career record against the Cleveland answered with Hurst Bert Blyleven. Tiger Stadium.

OH Can Boyd. Tigers at Cleveland In '85. Indians. six. I I I IJ I I.