Sheffield Says Jeter, A-Rod Get Too Much Credit in Press

AOL Sports ^ | 05 August 2005

[Lando Lincoln]

Gary Sheffield knows who leads the New York Yankees, and it apparently isn't Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez.

"Jeter is our captain. He's not the leader. He's the captain." -Gary Sheffield

Sheffield all but appointed himself the Yankees' most valuable player in an interview with New York magazine, accusing reporters of distorting the truth and ruining team chemistry.

"I know who the leader is on the team," Sheffield told the magazine. "I ain't going to say who it is, but I know who it is. I know who the team feeds off. I know who the opposing team comes in knowing they have to defend to stop the Yankees.

"I know this. The people don't know. Why? The media don't want them to know. They want to promote two players in a positive light, and everyone else is garbage."

Sheffield said Friday in Toronto that Jeter is not the leader.

"Jeter is our captain. He's not the leader. He's the captain," Sheffield said.

Sheffield, however, said the magazine writer made up things to "juice the story." He said he had an assistant with him to make sure the interview stayed positive.

"It's typical. That's the life of being me," Sheffield. "It's tough for me to do interviews when people have pens that have motives. It was supposed to be a positive interview."

"New York magazine stands 100 percent behind Stephen Rodrick's story. Mr. Sheffield's statements are on audio tape," said Serena Torrey, spokesperson for the magazine.

Sheffield called and talked to Jeter about the article after hearing about it from his assistant. He said he couldn't get a hold of Rodriguez.

He also said he doesn't have to boast about himself.

"I don't have to speak about me. My numbers speak for me," Sheffield said.

Jeter said he has a good relationship with Sheffield and that the article doesn't change anything.

"From what I understand he never mentioned my name," Jeter said. "My name was brought into it, but it never came out of his mouth."

Rodriguez said this was bound to happen.

"Every family has issues. When you think about what happens in other clubhouses this is quite trivial," Rodriguez said. "I love Gary and in the course of eight months if family are not going to say things that they regret or think from the hip it's not real."

Manager Joe Torre said he would talk to Sheffield.

"Shef has never been shy about voicing his opinion on anything," Torre said. "I've had some casual conversations with a couple of players about it and nobody seemed out of joint about it."

Torre said he's used to distractions.

Sheffield was batting .302 this season entering Friday night's game against Toronto, a percentage point behind Jeter and well behind Rodriguez's team-leading .316.

Rodriguez also leads in home runs (30) and RBI (85). Sheffield's 21 homers and 81 RBIs are tied for second in both categories.

Sheffield said in the article that the heavy scrutiny that goes with playing in New York inhibits friendships in the locker room.

"This is the first team I've been on where no one sits at their locker," he said. "It's where you build your chemistry, just talking about life. I'm used to having six chairs around me, but here if there are six chairs, then there's going to be 20 reporters."

Even if the clubhouse were less hectic, Sheffield said he wouldn't grow too close to any teammates.

"I don't trust that many people," he told the magazine. "Just my mother and my wife and a couple of friends. When I trust people, it doesn't end well."

Sheffield, however, said Friday that he trusts Jeter and Rodriguez more than any two players in baseball.

"Not just on this team but in all of baseball," Sheffield said.

Sheffield was never known for his congeniality during tumultuous stops in Milwaukee and Los Angeles. He blamed the media for his reputation.

"It happens because you're white and I'm black," Sheffield told the magazine. "My interpretation of things is different. You don't see it the way I see it. You write how you understand it, how you would articulate it, not how I, as a black man, would articulate it."

[Stayingawayfromthedarkside]

What does this have to do with race? Jeter and A-Rod are not white. Bye the way Gary, Jeter has 3 more rings than you. Also, where was your great leadership when the Yankees had that collapse in October.

[Al Simmons]

It has to do with Sheffield being a "BIG TIME" arse-hole.

[raptor29]

Sheffield is a mega-juicehead and Reggie Jackson was not. So before we start any Hall of Fame talk for this bad actor, let's evaluate him and the other cheaters of this era in the proper light.

[Charles Henrickson]

"It happens because you're white and I'm black," Sheffield told the magazine. "My interpretation of things is different. You don't see it the way I see it. You write how you understand it, how you would articulate it, not how I, as a black man, would articulate it."

A talk show host on the SF Giants radio station just got suspended for making a passing reference to "Caribbean" ballplayers. Here Sheffield makes outright racist remarks, and do you think anything will happen to him? Not in Allan "Bud" Selig's PCMLB.

[Charles Henrickson]

A-Rod is a better ballplayer than Sheffield, and Jeter is at least Sheffield's equal--not to mention that Jeter has been a Yankee his whole glorious career, a steady constant leading them to their pennants and WS championships of the past decade. Furthermore, Jeter and A-Rod each are part-black, so there goes Sheffield's theory about racism, unless it's because he's blacker than those guys.

[ken5050]

Gary was drinking, I think...

[raptor29]

'nuance' my ass. First of all, to equate occasionally loading up a spitball or corking a bat once a year with baseball's runaway steroid abuse and its impact over the last decade-plus is comical. Secondly, unprescribed steroid use was/is illegal drug activity and was/is therefore in violation of MLB's and the Uniform Player's Contract rules against illegal substances. That the game had no specific 'steroid' policy doesn't make that go away. Steroids were always 'cheating'. Steroids were also available during Reggie Jackson's day, and he didn't feel compelled to use them. But today, because they are so rampant, many players are forced to counter the steroid advantage of other players in order to compete. So now anyone who wants to play sports at the highest level should have to significantly jeopardize their health in order to do so, and you are OK with that?

[raptor29]

Another thing. The current estimate is that somewhere around 300,000 high school age kids are currently messing with steroids, likely due to the sterling example set by today's athletes. Many of the steroids/HGH used mess up the brain's production of serotonin, and in a young kid, more often than not, the body never fully readjusts after stopping the steroid use. So these people, among other potential problems, are likely candidates for long-term depression. That's if the liver cancer doesn't get them first, I guess.

[Al Simmons]

"Lefty Grove would still be an excellent pitcher in today's game, but he would face much faster, stronger, better-conditioned hitters and his numbers would reflect it."

I think you missed my point. PRECISELY because of the factors you noted, you CANNOT compare the players of yesteryear with today's players (apples v. oranges).

So what to do? What I stated in my last post; Compare each of them with their CONTEMPORARIES, and you will get an idea how they rank head-to-head in the overall scheme of things.

But to address your point, I say this: If Babe Ruth was born in 1985, had had the benefit of the superior training, nutrition, etc., he STILL would be the greatest player of all time because - quite obviously - he had the greatest natural talent any baseball player ever had.

Ditto for Lefty Grove if he had been born in 1985 and was just coming up today. Both of them would have been physically bigger and better developed due to the superior nutrition of the time vs. 100 years ago - which would have simply added onto their natural ability.

One final PS about Grove - We know that Bob Feller was clocked at about 95 MPH by a WW II Navy radar instrument; and Joe Cronin said that Grove threw "much, much harder than Feller".

So, Grove probably had Nolan Ryan-like speed (98-100 MPH) even WITHOUT the training/nutritional advantages of today.

P.S. And ought to know. I played with - and against - Grove for most of his career. *LOL* (See my home page) ;-)

[raptor29]

What shallow, uninformed rhetoric, the type that regularly undermines the credibility of the typical staunch libertarian position. I work in professional sports, in baseball, and you are completely wrong about the numbers of players using steroids and growth hormone. You would be stunned, apparently. Secondly, the numbers of high school age athletes (and then, college age) using this stuff would also surprise the hell out of you. I don't rely on 'social worker/crisis mongers' to tell me this is a problem, I see it up close, every day, and was talking about it well before any of these numbers started coming out, and well before any Congress members started grandstanding the issue. You are also wrong about the legality of anabolic steroids. It is a crime to use them without a presciption, and it always has been and as such, has always been a violation of baseball rules. There is nothing in the baseball rules specifically discussing the legality of spiking your opponent's Gatorade dispenser with a narcotic, but that would be against the rules too.

[raptor29]

"So if a guy work(?) for ConEd, he's a commentator of nuclear policy?"

Wow, you need quite an assumption about my role to justify your position. And you are way off.

Secondly, if you claim that you never said anabolic steroids were legal, but you say it's OK for athletes to use them, then you are saying that illegality by athletes is justifiable, in the pursuit of enhanced performance. You might rethink that one.

Also, you seem to mention that because there are so many ways to 'get around' steroid testing, we shouldn't police the activity, because it's hopeless. So let's just get rid of all the police forces throughout the country, because we continue to have crime and always will. Good thinking, let's do that.

[raptor29]

"Plenty of things are illegal, some things are illegal in some sports and not in others."

Again, using these types of steroids/growth hormones without a prescription is and was illegal, in this country. So it is/was illegal for players to use them.

"I think their illegality is mostly a matter of sentiment, not reason....."

There is no 'reason' to discouraging the use/abuse of anabolic steroids?