By ERIC BENEVIDES

Sports writer

PAWTUCKET --- If it wasn’t for the few speckles of gray in his hair and his moustache, you would probably swear that it was the ’80s again and Dennis Boyd was still pitching for the Boston Red Sox.
At the age of 49, Boyd, who pitched for the Red Sox from 1982-89, still has the lanky build and the swagger that made him a hit with New England fans and one of the true characters of the game.
And while the man known by all as “Oil Can” looks like he can still pitch at Fenway Park, he believes that he can still compete in the major leagues, and at a high level, and he made those feelings known before Thursday night’s game at McCoy Stadium.
“Right now, I’d have to say that I’m 70 percent as good as anyone throwing a baseball anywhere, right now, today,” said Boyd, who currently resides in East Providence. “I can go out and do what I once did, and possibly do even better, there’s no question.”
Boyd, who was 78-77 with a 4.04 ERA in his major league career, was at the park to help promote journalist Larry Tye’s biography of Satchel Paige titled “Satchel, The Life and Times of an American Legend”, and if Boyd had his way, he would have a very long career similar to the Hall of Fame pitcher he admired as a youngster in Mississippi.
“People thought I retired from baseball,” added Boyd. “No, I never retired from baseball. I was just never given another opportunity to play baseball, but would I like another one? You bet I would.”
If Boyd needed another boost of confidence, he got one earlier this spring during a fantasy baseball camp in Florida when he took the hill and found out that he could still throw the ball in the high 80s.
A New England publication took note of Boyd’s pitching and caught wind of his comeback plans, and a few former players also raised their eyebrows at what they saw from The Can.
“Brooks Robinson just happen to see me throw a baseball down there and said, ‘How long have you been throwing the ball like that?’ ” recalled Boyd. “I said, ‘About 15 years or so,’ and then he said, ‘Has anyone given you an opportunity to play?’ When I told him no, he said, ‘If you got a chance to play, would you?’ and I said, ‘Of course,” and that’s where (the comeback news) started from.
“That day, Mike Stanley and Rich Gedman were catching and they said my stuff was better now than it was when I was a kid,” noted Boyd. “Two guys who caught me in the major leagues would know better than anybody.”
Boyd will be quick to admit that his big career ended too soon after the ’91 campaign when he went 8-15 in 31 starts for the Montreal Expos and Texas Rangers. Arm problems plagued him through the final seasons of his career, and at 32, he found himself on the outside looking in the following year.
“Half of the time I played major league baseball, I wasn’t healthy,” added Boyd. “I had surgery in 1987 and it took me 10 years for my arm to even feel good. When I was with Montreal and Texas, I was still going through blood clots and doing injections and blood thinners, but I still pitched.”
Since delivering his final major league offering, Boyd has bounced around in a number of independent leagues, such as the Northeast and the Northern Leagues, and outside the country in Puerto Rico and Mexico.
His last appearance in New England came four years ago when he toiled in the Cam-Am League for the fourth-year Brockton Rox and was selected a league All-Star as the Rox made a push for a playoff berth.
“My arm just got time to heal,” said Boyd. “I started doing things to help it and lifting different weights to build it back. Now that people see me at 49 years old throwing 90 mph, they think it’s something out of the ordinary, but its very natural for me. I’ve always been wiry and strong and I maintained my arm strength through these years.”
Right now, Boyd is playing in a senior amateur wooden bat league in Providence, and while you would think he’d be greatly helping his cause at a comeback by blowing away opposing hitters, he’s merely content to play shortstop and third base and leave the pitching duties to his teammates.
But the itch to pitch is there, and Boyd was quick to note that he would love nothing more that to show off his arm to any big league teams who would be willing to spend a few minutes to watch him deliver his stuff.
“I don’t like walking around with dynamite stuck to my shoulder and I can’t use it,” said Boyd. “No one throws the baseball nowhere better than I can. If someone right now gave me an opportunity to go back to the minor leagues and see what I could do, I would take that up and I’m sure I would open up some eyes. I know what I can do, and as soon as someone sees me do that, they’ll know that I’m not lying about it.”