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Outspoken, Sheffield Isn’t Always Unfiltered
By JACK CURRY
Gary Sheffield looked relaxed and in his environment. He wore a Detroit Tigers T-shirt, he crossed his arms and stood in front of his locker in Cleveland like a preacher by his pulpit. The words kept flowing, more opinions, more statements, more Sheffield.
There is always something unpredictable poised to slip out of Sheffield’s mouth. All it takes is one question to ignite him, one topic to incite him, one issue to infuriate him. With Sheffield, there is rarely an edit button.
Sheffield reiterated Tuesday that he felt that Yankees Manager Joe Torre treated black players differently than white players during his three seasons in New York. That is an accusation that Torre had never heard during 27 seasons as a manager.
Sheffield, who returns to Yankee Stadium with the Tigers tonight, sounded ready to keep repeating it.
“Yeah, I know exactly what I’m saying,” Sheffield said. “I’m always going to be that way.”
If Sheffield felt this way about Torre, it is notable that he never mentioned it while he was with the Yankees. Sheffield said he muzzled himself because he felt “he was walking on thin ice from Day 1.” He said that slippery surface existed because George Steinbrenner, the principal owner, not Torre or General Manager Brian Cashman, orchestrated his signing.
Still, if Sheffield has such strong feelings about how Torre treated him, it would seem the type of material that he would have included in his recent book. Sheffield criticized Torre for singling him out in team meetings in “Inside Power,” but there is nothing in its 233 pages about Torre favoring white players over black players. Why not?
“Because that ain’t what my book was about,” Sheffield said. “My book was about other things.”
Torre has declined to comment since Sheffield first made his allegations on HBO’s “Real Sports” last month. He took that same stance yesterday at Yankee Stadium.
“I’m not going to respond because I don’t want to defend myself against something that’s not necessary,” Torre said.
Sheffield said he did not consider Torre a racist, nor is he one. He said anyone who called a black person a racist was making “probably the most ignorant statement” ever.
“Most black people are not racist,” Sheffield said. “We got a lot to be mad about. We got a lot to say and so forth. We just don’t.”
But Sheffield acknowledged that he does say a lot. Sheffield said that the “real Sheffield fans” would probably salute him at the stadium. Those fans will remember how Sheffield averaged 35 home runs and 122 runs batted in for his first two seasons in New York. He said if some fans berated him during the four-game series, it would be “irrelevant.”
Sheffield is happy with the Tigers, adores Manager Jim Leyland and has thrived as a designated hitter. Sean Casey, the Tigers’ first baseman, called Sheffield one of the best players in the game and said he was amazed when the Yankees sent him to the Tigers for three young pitchers.
The Yankees play Sheffield and Detroit eight times in the next 11 days, a stretch with postseason implications for both teams.
“Honestly, Shef’s been in the news a couple of times for some comments,” Casey said. “But, for the most part, he’s pretty quiet. It’s amazing. He keeps to himself. He shows up and plays hard every day.”
Sheffield is hitting .284 with 24 homers and 71 R.B.I. and is such a tough out that Leyland credited him with having a huge impact on the superb season Magglio Ordóñez is having in the cleanup spot. Ordóñez is batting .359 with 22 homers and 108 R.B.I.
Despite Sheffield’s soft landing, he still resents the Yankees. Sheffield was probably the most feared Yankees hitter until an injury-shortened 2006, but he apparently felt unappreciated. He is angry about having to fight Steinbrenner to collect interest on the deferred money in his three-year, $39 million contract.
“People, when they talked about my contract, they talked about greedy?” he said. “Well, if you look at my contract, I accommodated them more than any player ever in history ever accommodated anybody. So, for people to jump on the bandwagon and say I was greedy, it’s the most mind-boggling thing ever.”
Saying he is “cut from a different cloth,” Sheffield does not regret the controversial comments he has made this season.
Among those comments was Sheffield’s remark that there were more Latino players than black players in baseball because they were “easier to control.”
In addition, Sheffield was suspended for “aggressive actions” toward an umpire and called umpires corrupt. Sheffield told USA Today that Commissioner Bud Selig was a liar for saying he was unaware of steroid use in the past. After Sheffield was fined, he told Selig that he meant that he had suspicions about players who might have used steroids and figured others, like Selig, did, too.
“It was nothing personal or anything like that,” he said.
With Torre, it is personal.
When Sheffield was asked if he would shake Torre’s hand if he saw him today, he said, “I don’t think I ever shook his hand when I was there.”
Then Sheffield said, “Ask him that question.”
When Torre was asked, he said, “Probably not.”
By the time Sheffield retires, he will undoubtedly hit the 21 more home runs he needs to reach 500. Sheffield has won a batting title and also has a World Series ring. But Sheffield, forever talking and trying to leave an imprint, said he wanted to be remembered as a player “who didn’t fall for anything.”
What does that mean?
“I stood for something,” said Sheffield, who then turned silent, letting those words complete his story.
For now, that is.
