Gary Sheffield continues to run his mouth even with a new team writes George King.
The blaze in his belly has carried Gary Sheffield from the streets of Tampa to the doorsteps of Cooperstown. Now, as he moved toward the first base line last October to be introduced with the reserves prior to Game 3 of the ALDS vs. the Tigers at Comerica Park, the pilot light deep in Sheffield’s soul went off the moment he found out he wasn’t in the lineup.
“Joe [Torre] took the fire out of me,” Sheffield told The Post yesterday at ProPeak Fitness, where he spent the winter chiseling his 38-year-old body getting ready for the first season as a Tiger. He was dealt for three young arms. “I am running out on the field with the extra players. Think of what was going through my head. It takes the fight out of you. I have been through a lot. To tell me that I had to run out with the extra players, that took it to another level. I wanted to make sure I didn’t lash out and affect the team, but the way we played it looked like we were affected already.”
That Sheff has some ego. He seems to think that his benching left the team so emotionally devastated that it had no chance against the Tigers. He does realize the team overcame the heartache of his wrist injury to obliterate the American League East, doesn’t he?
Sheffield never understood why he had to hit fifth in his first season. And he remembers the hurt he felt when he heard Torre wanted to sign Vladimir Guerrero instead of him.
“I never expected how bad that hurts, you know your own manager,” Sheffield said of Guerrero being a Yankee. “I read that a lot. Think about it, I just came off a season [in Atlanta] where I hit .330 with 39 homers and 132 RBIs and broke Hank Aaron’s [single-season RBI record] and to come to the Yankees and all of a sudden before I pick up a bat, automatically I am a fifth-place hitter. It’s like you have to take a backseat to these guys because of their track record. What about my track record?”
Since Sheffield hit third during the 2004 season, it is truly baffling to figure out what he is talking about. Still, when Robinson Cano can hit .340 in 2006 and not complain about hitting low in the order, and Melky Cabrera can keep his mouth shut after being benched in the postseason, Sheffield’s whining about hitting fifth shows a lot about his character. It’s always about him. Take ‘I’ and “me” out of Sheffield’s vocabulary, and he might not be able to put together a complete sentence. It’s no wonder the guy has been run out of so many towns despite his vast ability.
Vintage Sheffield
Gary Sheffield continues to run his mouth even with a new team writes George King.
That Sheff has some ego. He seems to think that his benching left the team so emotionally devastated that it had no chance against the Tigers. He does realize the team overcame the heartache of his wrist injury to obliterate the American League East, doesn’t he?
Since Sheffield hit third during the 2004 season, it is truly baffling to figure out what he is talking about. Still, when Robinson Cano can hit .340 in 2006 and not complain about hitting low in the order, and Melky Cabrera can keep his mouth shut after being benched in the postseason, Sheffield’s whining about hitting fifth shows a lot about his character. It’s always about him. Take ‘I’ and “me” out of Sheffield’s vocabulary, and he might not be able to put together a complete sentence. It’s no wonder the guy has been run out of so many towns despite his vast ability.