BOSTON — Doug Melvin already has had great influence on a New York baseball team — in part because of his wife’s strawberry shortcake.

Melvin pitched six years in the minors, the final four with the Yankees. Melvin, who interviewed for the Mets’ GM position Tuesday, graduated from batting-practice pitcher for the club to the Yankees’ scouting director. In that capacity in 1985 he received a report from scout Roberto Rivera about a 16-year-old he was watching play center field for the Sabana Hoyos in the Mickey Mantle League in Puerto Rico. Rivera looked at Bernie Williams’ long legs and arms and projected the next Dave Winfield.

Melvin did not see the same. Williams had run the 200 and 400 meters in high school, and Melvin appreciated the speed and running form but thought the baseball skills were raw. Williams was still just a righty hitter and lacked power. In fact, there were the first glimpses of what would come to be known as “Bernie World,” because sometimes on defense Williams could be gleaned playing air guitar.

But Melvin read quickly a smart kid he liked, particularly because — while shy — Williams would always make eye contact when they talked. Plus, there were enough projections to dream. The Yankees were worried about the Padres seeing the same, since at that time, having scored the Alomar brothers, Carlos Baerga and Benito Santiago, San Diego was a huge factor in Puerto Rico.

There were concerns that if they waited until Williams’ 17th birthday, Sept. 13, 1985, to sign him by the rules, a team such as San Diego could swoop in. The Yankees’ international scouting head, Fred Ferreira, convinced Williams’ school-teacher mother, Ruffina, that her son would be best served coming to the United States for the summer before he turned 17 to better learn English and adjust to American culture before joining a minor league team.

Williams was stashed in a baseball academy in Cheshire, Conn., a 20-minute drive from Melvin’s home in Branford. Williams feared loneliness and actually tried to persuade the Yankees to also sign his friend who played on the same Mickey Mantle team, but club officials fretted about asking George Steinbrenner for more money. The friend was Juan Gonzalez, who turned into a slugging outfielder for the Rangers.

To counteract the loneliness that summer, Williams would often dine at Melvin’s home and particularly fell in love with his wife Ellen’s strawberry shortcake.

The ploy worked. No one else came after Williams. The Yankees initially were going to offer Williams $8,000, but that was not going to be enough, so Melvin was part of the group that got the proposal doubled, which led to Williams signing his first pro contract.