Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 41

i mm BONUS: FOOTBALL Reports on today's games, U-M, MSU, EMU, CMU-WMU, Hillsdale-NMU. 7C. Saturday, Oct. 29, 1988 Section i Sports World, Page 2 NBANHL, Page 4 Horse racing, Page 9 Scores: 1-976-1313, Sports: 222-6660 i 1 1 1 t'i 'j 1 righlhiandedl bats Gharlio Uinccnt Tigeirs Detroit picks up Padres' Brown, Moreknd We'll miss Evans, for all the right reasons -rv Old Tigers First baseman Darrell Evans (left), a Tiger for five years, will not be offered a contract for the 1989 season. Pitcher Walt Terrell (right), with the Tigers since 1985, was traded to the San Diego Padres.

0 much for sentiment. So much for yesterday. So much for Darrell Evans. 1 The Tigers told him Friday they would not need him next season. They wished him Terrell dealt; Evans won get contract By Joe lapointe Free Press Sports Writer The pitching-rich Tigers traded starter Walt Terrell to; San Diego Friday for two veteran, right-handed hitters wha they hope will anchor the corners of their infield.

The Tigers also announced that Darrell Evans, one of Detroit's most popular athletes of the 1980s, will not be offered a contract for next season. Acquired in the trade were Chris Brown, a thirtf: baseman, and Keith Moreland, a first baseman, and an undisclosed amount of cash. "We obtained two players who are certainly capable of playing every day," said Tigers vice-president and general -manager Bill Lajoie. Moreland also has been a catcher and outfielder and could be used as a designated hitter. Last year, he hit .256 with five home runs and 64 RBIs.

See DARRELL EVANS, Page 6C BY REID CREAGER Free Press Sports Writer The Tigers Friday acquired two right-handed batters from San Diego Chris Brown, a young third baseman with a rocky background but plenty of talent, and Keith Moreland, a dependable, unspectacular veteran. Brown, 27, hit .235 with two homers and 19 RBIs in 1988 in 80 games. He brings loads of offensive and defensive potential and an uncanny history of bad luck and injuries. In 1985 with the San Francisco Giants, his first full season, he hit 16 homers and drove in 61 runs in 131 See NEW TIGERS, Page 6C And new In exchange for Terrell, the Tigers acquired third baseman Chris Brown (near right) and first baseman Keith Moreland (far right), who spent six years with the Chicago Cubs through the '87 season. If1 1 ---I A 4 f-tA jf sJ- li i WILLIAM ARCHIEDetrolt Free Press good luck and good riddance and made his locker available for a new face and a new name.

It is becoming an annual ritual at Tiger Stadium. So long, Lance; so long, Gibby; goodby, Darrell. I hope this time they are right at Michigan and Trumbull. I hope they do not look back next October, as they did this one, and recognize a mistake may have been made. Evans, after all, is 41.

He has played 20 years in the major leagues. He played with Davey Johnson and Hank Aaron in Atlanta in 1973 when they all hit at least 40 home runs. Johnson had 43, Aaron 40 and Evans 41. That was the last time Evans had that many until he hit 40 with the Tigers in 1985. He has lasted longer than most.

And had more success than most. But 1988 was not a good year for him. He had worked hard all winter and he looked fit and trim. He exuded confidence. But it did not translate into production at the plate.

Most of the summer was a disaster for him, and even though a late surge allowed him to finish with 22 home runs the fourth season in a row he led the Tigers in homers his batting average was only .208. And when you strip away the sentiment, there is no real reason to believe next summer will be better. A low moment, a high moment Evans' career probably is over. Certainly the best part of it is. It has been a distinguished career and a classy one.

I hope now he does not end it lugging his duffle bag from one training camp to another in an attempt to squeeze another season from his body. I hope he does not have doors slammed in his face. That is not the picture of him that I want to remember. I want to remember that wonderfully poignant 24 hours in October of 1987, when Evans made a mistake and the baseball fans of this city showed him the love they reserve for athletes they respect. It was in the fourth game of the American League playoff series against Minnesota, and Evans was picked off third base, hammering the final nail into the Tigers' 5-3 loss to the Twins.

He was the goat, no denying it. He had made a costly mistake. And the next day, when he came to the plate for the first time, he did not know what to expect from the fans. As he walked from the dugout, it began. Applause at first.

Then cheers. Then an avalanche of noise. They were on their feet. All of them. Every man, woman and child in Tiger Stadium.

"It was," he would say later, "real special You can't pay enough money to have these things happen to you." Maybe our yardstick is off I want to remember the final game of this season, when he singled Pat Sheridan home from third base with the run that gave the Tigers a 4-3 win over the New York Yankees in the 11th inning of a game that meant nothing in the standings. The fans gave him a final curtain call that afternoon. He stood there, arms in the air, the game-winning ball given to him by manager Sparky Anderson clutched in his left hand, and waved. Goodby, it turns out. And I want to remember him standing lingering, really in front of his locker that day, as if he did not want to leave.

"Guys care around here," he said, his eyes taking in the final farewells being offered around the room. "Some more than others, but there's always that positive feeling. We could have quit, but that doesn't seem to be the way things happen around here." That is the thing I liked most about Evans: He never quit. And that is why he probably will spend the winter trying to catch on with another team, and the spring trying to make another team. The day he gives up that dream will be the day he begins making the conversion from player to manager, a metamorphosis no one doubts.

Always, I will remember Evans as a man who was as much of a winner in his quiet way as Kirk Gibson is in his flamboyant one. But baseball, of course, is a business. Winners are no good unless they actually win. Unless they hit better than .208. Baseball is about dollars and cents and getting the most for your investment.

If baseball ever was about little freckle-faced kids standing outside a locker room asking for autographs, it is no longer. You wonder sometimes or at least I do about the gauge franchises use to measure their athletes. In Detroit, I fear, the gauge does not always take into account the intangibles that sport is supposed to embody. I fear that here we do not always give weight to effort, Or to desire. Or to the will to win.

I fear that here we worry more about the numbers on a man's paycheck and the stubble on his face. I will miss Darrell Evans. Probably, though, the Tigers will not. Probably, they have done the right thing. Kirk Gibson tells MSU players, lined up at the 50, how he and the Los Angeles Dodgers overcame roadblocks to win the World Series.

Bubba, Kirk inspiration to others Smith delivers hope to inmates at Jackson "Hey! Bubba! What's happening?" "Hangin' in. Hangin' in. "Don't hang in here, You 11 whip adversity, Gibson tells Spartans BY PERRY A. FARRELL Free Press Sports Writer EAST LANSING Kirk Gibson strolled into Michigan State's football practice around 4:30 p.m. Friday as the Spartans were going through a light workout in the Duffy Daugherty Football Building.

Everyone, except the players, turned and looked. Gibson was wearing Dodger-blue Nike warm-ups. He limped slightly, a remnant of a long baseball season, a seven-game National League playoff series against the New York Mets, and one World Series game he briefly appeared in for the Los Angeles Dodgers. "If I had to play a game today, it would be hard," Gibson said later. He then spoke to Eddie Smith, the quarterback who in 1978 created a special chemistry with Gibson, MSU's all-time leader in touchdown receptions with See KIRK GIBSON, Page 7C US-127 for a game of basketball against the inmates.

Charles (Bubba) Smith has traveled a lot of miles since then, making a name and a fortune for himself. He played pro football in Oakland and Houston and Baltimore, then went into acting. And before Michigan State's game against Ohio State today, he'll be honored for being elected to the college football Hall of Fame. When his old pal and former Michigan State teammate, Ernie Pasteur, now a deputy warden at Jackson, asked if he'd stop by the prison, Smith couldn't refuse. See BUBBA SMITH, Page 6C man.

It was Friday morning in Cell Block 5 of the State Prison of Southern Michigan in Jackson, and Bubba Smith was behind prison walls again. He hadn't been there in, oh, about 22 years not since the last time Charlie Vincent GEORGE WALDMANDetrolt Free Press Bubba Smith (foreground) answered a call from Ernie Pasteur (standing at his side). he joined a group of Michigan State University athletes for the drive down ri ft mS I I Foreman wins 13th straight by knockout, still wants Tyson guy, you hit harder." The win was his 13th straight by knockout since coming out of retirement in March 1987. Foreman, 40, boosted his career record to 58-2 with 55 KOs. Fulilangi's record dropped to 39-4-2.

Foreman, fighting in his hometown, received rousing ovations with each flurry of punches. Fulilangi, a 216-pound veteran from Tonga, was knocked down three times in the second by Foreman, who weighed 250 pounds. Fulilangi got off to a good start, with three hard shots in the first round that seemed to stun Foreman. But the former champ rebounded quickly, forcing Fulilar into the corner, where he belted him with several right hooks, taking command of the bout. Free Press Wire Reports MARSHALL, Tex.

Former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman repeated his wish to fight current champion Mike Tyson after winning his 58th career fight with a knockout of Tony Fulilangi. "Heck, I'm champion of the world," Foreman said after Thursday night's second-round victory. "Right out there is a good indication of what I can do to Tyson." Foreman, who said he was in the best shape of his career, sent Fulilangi reeling to the canvas at 2:26 of the second round. "I'm a better fighter now than I have ever been in my life. Foreman could have lost weight, but I started thinkingVhy would a lion lose weight to fight a house cat? If you're a bigger See Soundoff.Tage 12A.

George Foreman: "I'm champion of the world.".