Remembering the Sheffield Era
By
(AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
After more than two decades in the big leagues, Gary Sheffield officially called it a career yesterday, 16 months after playing in his final game. He suited up for eight different teams and was an All-Star with five of them, thrice finishing in the top three of the MVP voting but never taking home the hardware. A career .292/.393/.514 hitter with 509 homers and far more walks (1,475) than strikeouts (1,171), Sheff was a brilliant offensive force on the field and a jerk off it.
When he joined the Yankees prior to the 2004 season, he did so only because George Steinbrenner wanted him. Just about everyone else preferred Vladimir Guerrero, who was six years younger than Sheff and more multi-dimensional, capable of beating you with his bat, his speed, or his arm. Instead it was Sheffield who joined the Yankees, at the cost of a three-year contract and a little more than $36M. After dealing with Raul Mondesi for the past two years, the Yanks finally had a capable replacement for Paul O’Neill in right field.
Sheff stepped right into the heart of a rebuilt Yankees’ lineup in 2004, hitting fifth behind the likes of Kenny Lofton, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Jason Giambi at the outset of the season. It wasn’t long before he forced his way into a more glamorous lineup spot, replacing Giambi as the cleanup hitter in late-May before forcing A-Rod down a spot and assuming three-hole responsibilities in late-June. Sheff led the team in slugging percentage (.534), OPS (.927), homers (36), and runs scored (117) that year, placing second in the AL MVP voting. The winner? That would be Guerrero, who hit .317/.394/.565 overall and .370/.427/.688 in the final 45 games of the season to get the Angels into the playoffs.
The Yankees quickly dispatched of the Twins in the ALDS that season, in part due to Sheffield’s game tying-two run homer off Brad Radke in Game Two. Like everyone else on the club, he demolished Red Sox pitching in the first three games of the ALDS (9-for-13 with three doubles and a homer) before seeing his bat fall silent in the final four contests (just 1-for-17). “I never thought it would end like this,” said Sheff after the series, echoing the thoughts of the city.
As it tends to do, time passed and the Yankees were back in action in 2005. A-Rod and Sheffield formed what was arguably the game’s most devastating three-four combo that year, hitting a collective .306/.401/.562 with 82 homers and 253 RBI. Sheff’s contribution to that was .291/.379/.512 with 34 homers and 123 RBI, a performance that led to an eighth place finish in the MVP voting. Alex took home the award. Perhaps his most memorable moment of the year came in mid-April, when a fan at Fenway Park hit him in the face as he fielded a ball in the right field corner. Sheff pushed the fan before firing the ball back to the infield, with security intervening before anything else could transpire.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
“Something hit me in the mouth. It felt like a hand,” Sheffield said afterward. “I thought my lip was busted. I tried to get his hand out of my face so I could continue on with the play. To get punched in the mouth, you don’t expect that in a baseball game. It could have been worse if I didn’t hold my composure. I almost snapped, but I thought about the consequences.”
The incident motivated the Yankees to another first place finish in the AL East, though they bowed out to the Angels in five games in the ALDS. Sheffield’s sixth inning run scoring single got the Yankees on the board in Game Four, helping them to a come-from-behind win that prolonged their season. His three hits in Game Five weren’t enough though, and for the second time in as many seasons with New York, his season came to a premature end.
At age 37, Sheffield came out of the gate on fire in 2006, hitting .341/.390/.516 with four homers in his first 22 games. He suffered a left wrist sprain after colliding with Shea Hillenbrand on April 29th, an injury that signaled the beginning of the end of Sheff’s tenure in the Bronx. After trying to play through the injury, Sheffield eventually hit the disabled list and had surgery to repair a dislocated tendon and torn ligaments in the wrist. He was expected to miss the remainder of the season, prompting the Yankees to go out and trade for Bobby Abreu as a replacement in right field and the three-spot of the lineup.
A late-September return found Sheffield without a defensive home, so the team had him try first base for the first time in his career. It was a disaster in every way, because Sheff wasn’t hitting after surgery or saving runs with his glove. A 1-for-12 effort against the Tigers helped the Yankees to their second straight ALDS exit. With Abreu on board and under contract for 2007 with an option for 2008, Brian Cashman had a choice to make. He picked up Sheff’s $13M club option and turned to the trade market.
The Sheffield era in the Bronx came to an end similar to the way the Sheffield era ended in Milwaukee, Florida, Los Angeles, and eventually Detroit. He ran his mouth on his way out the door, calling out then-manager Joe Torre for what he felt was preferential treatment towards white players. After the HBO Real Sports interviewer pointed out that the team’s most popular player, Derek Jeter, was African American, Sheff responded by saying he “ain’t all the way black.” Bridges were burned and Sheffield was hastily traded to the Tigers on November 10th, less than two weeks after the end of the World Series, for three minor league pitchers.
Sheffield was tremendously productive during his time in New York, just like he was everywhere else. He hit .291/.383/.515 with 76 homers in 347 games for the Bombers, providing big hits and MVP-caliber performances in 2004 and 2005. His famous bat waggle and lightning quick swing were mimicked by kids playing wiffle ball all over the Tri-State Area, but in the end, Sheffield’s temper and paranoid racist thoughts led to a swift and unceremonious exit. His comments resulted in boos every time he came back to Yankee Stadium as a visiting player. Sheff retires with one World Series ring (1997 Marlins) and a long and remarkable career that should get him some Hall of Fame consideration, but his insecurities, occasional selfishness, and off-the-field persona have left a bad taste in the mouths of many.
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Unfortunately I will never forget him crashing into Bubba Crosby in the outfield during Game 5 of the 2005 ALDS vs the Angels which lead to a 2-out, 2-run triple I believe and gave the Angels the lead.
Turned out to basically be the difference in the game.
Bubba Crosby was a racist. He ran into Sheff on purpose.
He was a real jerk, but I must say, everytime he came to the plate with the chance to do some damage, I liked the odds for the Yankees. Couldn’t have asked for much more out of him.
Sheffield (c) 2004
Rodriguez (c) 2007
Cano (c) 2009
any time those three guys came up to bat, the odds swung the Yankees’ way.
I hope that Sheffield, Barry Bonds and Albert Belle donate their brains to science. Their passing wouldn’t necessarily be a prerequisite. The Game will miss them.
IETC
??
They were all pompous, selfish, racists, Kevin. That’s
the connection- as well were their superb hitting prowess.
Only, Bonds is Hall a Fame bound, IMO.
Appreciate the explanation. God, but I hope he’s not voted in….
Man, could Sheff hit the ball. Lightning quick.
Definitely. He could hit.
He had the most violent swing in baseball.
Based purely on stats, a definate hall of famer. I doubt he’ll make it though
Proof positive that roids rot the brain. Love the swing though.
Someone ran the numbers on fangraphs the other day and, no, he’s squarely on the bubble in a by the numbers eval. He’s got 500 homers, and thats kinda it in terms of hof bonafides.
well, just like any fringe player, his HOF chances will be based squarely on his persona off the field. Go Ask Jim Rice.
So yeah, Sheff don’t get in.
He definitely should.
Hands down the most badass batting stance in baseball history.
Check out Willie Stargell sometime.
I always think Eric Davis. Had to start his hands low otherwise he was too quick through the zone.
Good ballplayer. Never did understand that pesky word team. With all he brought to the field, I gotta think not too many of of his former teammates were sad to see him leave the clubhouse.
You couldn’t be more wrong from what I remember reading at the time and from what I know directly from internal Yankee sources that knew the scoop about Sheff. He was very well-respected (perhaps feared) by his peers and was one of the few Yanks that would get in teammates faces (as opposed to the more aloof Captain Jeter). Too bad Tommie isn’t commenting anymore; he would not let such a wildly unsubstantiated accusation of “paranoid racist thoughts” go unchallenged.
It seemed to me from the newspaper reports that Sheffield was an excellent teammate at all times except in walk years; when his contact was on the line, he seemed to be a completely different person.
Do you remember him volunteering to play third base for the Yankees if necessary? He was turned down, of course, but actually made it to third base for an inning in one game. He made an error, and thus set the Yankee team record for worst fielding percentage at the hot corner: .000.
paranoid?
Hmm, what part of him accusing Joe Torre of racial discrimination, is confusing you?
Do you think Joe Torre is any shape form a narrow-minded bigot that uses race to determine his mangerial choices?
Or how many times did crazy Gary would invoke the race card to justify why every situation would go sour with managment, fans or media. The guy’s a certified racist loon befiting the likes of an Al Sharpton/.
Yeah, I wish TSJC was around- to smack your ignorant head by defending an obvious spiteful bigot like Sheffield.
Ask Kenny Lofton what he thought about Joe Torre on the race issue. Comparing Sheff to Al Sharpton and calling him a spiteful bigot tells me (and would tell TSJC) all he needs to know about you and your kind.
Steve your wrong here. Lofton used the “race card” many times over the years. Suddenly Joe Torre is a racist because two emotionally unstable black players say so? Why is it when a white person is accused of being a “bigot”, he’s considered a “bigot”, game over. Read about Al Campanis if your to young to remember. Then why, when a story like this, http://www.intellectualconserv.....e4402.html
comes out the media stays mum? When this story broke I was flabbergasted to say the least. When nobody had anything to say about it, well being dismayed doesn’t even begin to explain my thoughts. The thing is, when the story broke Bonds was making MLB a lot of money. And let’s face it, in pro sports, if Adolph Hitler could star in his sport he’d be paid and glorified. And that’s just the way it is. Pretty sick, isn’t it, the way that people are manipulated?
I don’t know about your internal sources, I clearly remember some very heavy spin coming out of the Yanks’ PR people. I clearly remember when he first came up, and as he went from team to team. Every team that he left was glad that he was gone, bar none. I mean hell, he claimed that he intentionally threw balls into the stands because of money issues. And he was raising hell as a 19 year old because he was moved from SS to 3rd.
BTW, what wildly unsubstantiated accusation of “paranoid racist thoughts” are you referring to?
I was referring to those words as they appear in the last par. of Mike’s story.
my bad, must be that I need some kind of med……;)
Sheffield: “President Torre hates black people.”
Oh yes, Sheffield was really a good person. His problem was that he was ‘widely misunderstood/misquoted’. A person who was wronged by his manager (pick your team) for putting him in the wrong spot in the batting order or in the wrong position. And let’s not forget that he was never ‘treated right’ by ownership. He was always perplexed that when he was signed to a contract he couldn’t tear the paper up when he felt like he’d had a good season. If he had even average skills/production he would have been playing in Aruba after less than 2 years of his garbage…
Had Sheffield not gotten hurt in 2006 his signing may be considered the best Free Agent pickup of all time. Three years of All Star/ MVP type production. As it was it was still a very good pickup for the Yankees. Would have preferred Vlad – but the Shef signing turned out quite well. Dude’s a Hall of Famer.
whats sheff’s lifetime RISP average? is it just me or was he absolutely lethal when men were on base? it was like he smelled blood in the water or something.
.310/.429/.548 with RISP versus .285/.379/.502 with none or just 1B.
definitely “clutch”. thanks.
I remember Sheff complaining about his contract in Spring Training of ’05. C’mon, dude! You are your own agent – you came up with that contract yourself!
What I remember mist about Sheff, aside from him just mashing, was Larry Bowa sitting in tge first row of the stands down the LF line to coach 3rd base.
No mention of his link steroids…the creme with Barroid, right?
With that stat line, it’s hard to argue with his signing, but you have to wonder, if we signed Vlad instead, if the Yanks would have won another ring somewhere between ’04 and ’07…
If Sheff makes the Hall, what does he go in as? He played for so many teams.
The big piece was Humberto Sanchez, a hard-throwing CC big guy. Unfortunately, he got bigger and bigger and threw less and less hard. We basically got nothing.
he’ll probably luck out and end up getting voted in, then never actually get enshrined due to his insistence that he be honored as a member of “Team Sheffield”.
I actually used him as part of a college essay that ended up winning me a slew of awesome college grants that I’m still using to finish my masters. My point in the essay was how basically average americans who have notorious encounters with celebrities/public officials no matter how it comes about have an almost Jedi mind trick like ability to use the media to gain a public opinion advantage. I used the Sheffield-Fenway fan incident as one of the big foundations as it taking place in the modern media era had a lot more available material to research. The fan was basically a provable scum bag but managed to use the lazy press to make himself out to be basically the Ghandi of Boston by the following morning in the papers.
Anyone know why sheff left us as a gift? What did we get in return for the trade?
i remember him never playing up to his stats in big spots (subjective opinion) – i remember alot of big hacks and weak grounders, and while he was one of my favorite players while here, i though the duo of him and Arod always fell alittle short if the playoffs
quoting Mr. Delaware from above
.310/.429/.548 with RISP versus .285/.379/.502 with none or just 1B.
I’m gonna miss that violent swing
I was a fan of his as a player and never had reason to dislike him as a person. I guess the problem with what he said was that he said it more than what was said. I understand people prefer their ballplayers be “polite,” but a lot of his most controversial statements were not wrong in the least, really. The comment about Jeter’s race? It’s true. Now let me say that if you have no experience with racial issues and/or just don’t see things that way, that’s fine. Nothing wrong with that. But I can assure you, that for a large segment of the population Jeter is not “black” or at least not the same “kind of black” guy that Sheffield is. For example, there are many females who would never “date” a “black” guy who would have no problem with someone like Jeter, and there are many other situations where Jeter is not seen as black, at all. Whereas with someone like Sheffield, that is probably one of the top ways he is indentified, and it colors opinions of him. That said, I don’t want to diminish Jeter’s experience as a black man- while there are many places where he is not “black” I’m sure he has faced many situations where bigots do just the opposite. I have personal experience with that. But dismissing Sheffield’s comments as ignorant is, IMHO, a display of ignorance. Most people don’t have to experience these things and don’t consider them.
Also, Sheffield seemed willing to try firstbase and had nothing bad to say about my favorite Yankee, Don Mattingly. He gets points for that. Speaking of race, though Don Mattingly was my favorite there is no doubt his treatment compared to his great black Yankees teammates had a significant racial element.
I think Sheff just meant that Jeter is not gifted below the belt.
Wow, sorry to hear about your hardships, Greg, but that doesn’t excuse Sheff’s obvious racist character.
I’m sorry but when your judging others as whether your not full black or not then you are either a dispicable racist or a lunatic. Take your pick, Greg. Because would you accept any other individual of different races to judge others of their race quality because I don’t deal with such narrow minded folks.
Oh, how do you explain, Greg, Sheff’s opinion on Torre’s bigotry determining his managerial decisions. Do you belive Gary? Do you honestly think Joe Torre is a racist in any shape of form?
Hell, do you think each front office that got rid of him because they all were secret racists hating on his sweet, innocent person? I would hope the answer is no but I would like you to defend all the endless racist accusations this man has made. And don’t worry if you can’t Gary.
Greg, I’m more than old enough to remember Sheffield’s pro debut and the buzz that was around him. He did reach the Majors at 19 after all, he was going to be ‘beyond special’. He started throwing tantrums very early on, he was furious that he had to move from SS to 3rd. He believed, as I recall, that management was ‘messing with his mind’. I believe (although it seems he did over contract “issues” as well) that he started deliberately throwing balls over the first baseman’s head, into the crowd to make his point. He’s admitted to such actions to the press, this isn’t some KKK racists’ fantasy. Later, as time passed his mind was also ‘messed with’ because he was: 1: Wasn’t in the ‘right place in the batting order’ 2: He wasn’t being played at ‘the right position’ 3: He wasn’t getting protection behind him 4: Guys weren’t getting on in front of him (less RBIs for his next contract) Ownership, players, umps, and managers didn’t treat him as a “man” because he was “black”. The man never understood that when you sign a contract your also putting your “Word” on it. No, if he had an “off” year that was fine, if he had a “good” year then he would throw his tantrums and thinly veiled threats that he wanted a new contract, or “else”. This behaviour went on throughout his career and is well documented, i.e., you can look it up. Lastly, anyone that looks at his career numbers v. historical stats for hitters of his age can ONLY conclude that along with a hell of a lot of other players, he was a heavy PED user. I would suggest that some of his craziness was excacerbated by their use. One other thing, I found it hilarious when he would “volunteer” to play another position, ‘anything to help the team’ BS that he’d come out with late in his career. He knew damn well that the manager knew he couldn’t handle it (and not play him at said position), and gained some ‘likeability points’ with young, and/or naive fans. Tremendous ability, but w/o the PEDs, he would have been out of baseball years earlier, with no HOF talk. There were damn good reasons that he played for so many teams, he was a horse’s anus. And BTW, what in the hell are you talking about regarding race anyway? Your rambling post is totally baffling….
RE: the steroids accusations, Sheff admitted to using a steroidal cream on his injured knee that he got during a short-lived training regimen with Bonds. He said that he didn’t know that the cream contained steroids as evidenced by the fact that he openly kept it in his locker during the following season. I’m not aware of any other other allegations re: PED’s, and he’s denied ever using other PED’s.
His career trajectory is not consistent with other known steroid users. Sheffield’s BA was very consistent throughout and he was hitting 30-40 HR’s per season since 1992. There was no sudden huge jump in his power numbers like the Bonds’, Sosa’s and McGwire’s and there isn’t really any major discernable change to his stature and body frame that you would expect with a steroid user.
Sheff was always one of my favorite players and I’ll miss that lightning quick bat and trademark bat waggle. He said many dumb things over the years. That’s fine with me. He’s an athlete, not a pastor or politician. He doesn’t have a college degree and comes from the projects in Tampa. I think he’s always been truthful and forthcoming about anything and everything he’s been asked–often to his detriment, unfortunately. But obviously, he’s never cared about being politically correct. Again, that’s fine with me. I don’t expect him, or any athlete, to do a Pollyanna impressions.
I’ve never heard any teammate of Sheff ever say a bad thing about it. He obviously had run-ins with management over and over.
Again, he was really fun to watch. Always played hard and wow was he a hell of a good hitter.
PS, Greg C, check this out:
http://www.intellectualconserv.....e4402.html
When this story “broke” I was shocked. When this story didn’t even create any controversy I was dismayed. Don’t ever think that there’s a true black/white issue when big money is involved. If you make enough money for the owners you could be Adolph Hitler or Idi Amin, it’s all the same. People need to stop harping on this race non-issue. It needs to end because it just enables the politicians and the guys in the Lear jets to turn us all into puppets. Capice?
Not sure how you can speculate about the reasons he would be kept out of the hall yet neglect to mention steroids. Sort of the elephant in the syringe no?
Uhhhhh the most devastating 3-4 combo in 2005 was NOT A-rod and Sheffield. It was David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.
A-rod: .321, 48 HR, 130 RBI
Sheffield: .291, 34 HR, 123 RBI
Ortiz:.300, 47 HR, 148 RBI
Ramirez: .292, 45 HR, 144 RBI
There is no argument. Manny and Ortiz were better. Good try though.
Andrew says:
February 18, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Uhhhhh the most devastating 3-4 combo in 2005 was NOT A-rod and Sheffield. It was David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.
A-rod: .321, 48 HR, 130 RBI
Sheffield: .291, 34 HR, 123 RBI
Ortiz:.300, 47 HR, 148 RBI
Ramirez: .292, 45 HR, 144 RBI
There is no argument. Manny and Ortiz were better. Good try though.
……………… you mean the 4 best steroid users in 2005!
“……………… you mean the 4 best steroid users in 2005″!
Too funny!