A tribute to a Grade A Sheff

I'd like to shout out true baseball fans on this post. If you are a real baseball fan you can appreciate this post.


Gary Sheffield officially retired today from baseball and after his play in 2009 and him not playing in 2010, it was a forgone conclusion that he was done as a baseball player.I should also mention he was the nephew of a great baseball player in his own right in pitcher, Dwight "Doc" Gooden.

He played for many different teams during his career including my beloved New York Yankees. He began playing with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1988 and was traded to the San Diego Padres in 1992. Midseason 1993 he was traded to the Florida Marlins, where he started to become a star, won a World Series in 1997. He was then included in the infamous fire sale of the Marlins in the following season by team owner Wayne Huizenga. He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He stayed there for three and a half years and then again traded, this time to the Atlanta Braves. He spent two years as a Brave and was granted free agency. Sheffield could finally go somewhere of his choice. He choose the New York Yankees. After spending three seasons with the Bombers he was traded to the Tigers where he stayed for two season but was cut and signed to play his final season for the New York Mets.

Over his career he accumulated 509 homeruns and over 1600 runs batted in and more than 2500 hits. That is a great career and he will be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2014. Whether or not he gets in is the question. There was a lot of speculation of whether or not he took steroids or other performance enhancers. And even without steroids his career would be what voters would call that of a compiler. That is a player who had good numbers over a long period of time but never had any outstanding seasons. Also with the amount of times he had been traded, voters may think he was never a good teammate or a leader who was so valuable to his team that he was un-tradeable. Truth is, according to baseball-reference.com, comparable players to Sheffield include greats like Mel Ott, Reggie Jackson, Frank Robinson, and the person I believe to be the greatest baseball player ever, Micky Mantle.

What I can discuss about Sheffield is his time with the Yankees. He joined the Yankees after their pennant winning season of 2003. With him batting cleanup behind Alex Rodriguez(whom they also acquired that offseason), the sky was the limit for the Yankees. That October something happened that I rather not discuss but, it did not end in a championship for the Yanks. But, that year Sheffield finish second for AL MVP behind Vlad Guerrero. He mirrored his 2004 season in 2005 but finished 8th in the MVP voting. 2006 began the end of his time with the Yankees. He got injured in May and the Yankees found their replacement for him when they traded for Bobby Abreu. When he returned in September he went as far as learning to play first base to get regular at bats. In the offseason he got into a rift with Yankee GM Brian Cashman and was traded to the Detroit Tigers for three players that weren't even relevant in their time with the Yankees. At that time I was so pissed at that, but today I realize we found a taker for an old slugger with two expensive years left on his contract. After his time with the Yankees he also let out a secret than many other former disgruntled Yankees said after they left; Joe Torre was not an unbiased manager. He said Torre would call out certain players during team meetings and deal with some players differently with others. He took it a bit further by claiming Torre was a little racist in his management, but that part, I completely disagree with.

He will be remembered for his unique batting stance where he waved the bat back and forth as he anticipated the pitch. When in came he struck it with all his might. One personally memory I recall was a game me and my friend Bobbie went to in 2005. He came to the plate and the bat left his hands and headed straight to third base coach Larry Bowa. Bowa luckily wasn't hurt but it it was funny as hell to watch. I also remember watching a game on TV when the Yankees were in Boston. Sheffield chase down a ball near the outfield wall and an a**hole fan took a swipe at his face and Sheffield shoved the shit out of him. That was great to watch but I think we lost that game. Another personal memory was me and my boy LostUno's first game at Citi Field in 2009 when Sheff was playing for the Mets(you know, that shitty team across the bridge). It was at that time I realized Sheffield is pretty much done as an outfielder because the first ball hit to him he dropped. he hit 10 bombs that year, that included his 500th. 10 homeruns for the Mets, playing most of your games at cavernous Citi Field would be at least 20-25 on any other team, I think he had a little left in his bat.

Gary Sheffield I wish you the best for your retirement and hope you make it to the Hall of Fame. Check Sheff's career out here at Baseball-Reference.