Triple Play:
1. You may have heard that Gary is the nephew of veteran pitcher and onetime Mets phenom Dwight Gooden. Sheffield, who is just four years younger than Gooden, batted .286 (6-for-21) with a pair of walks and no extra-base hits against his uncle.
2. He was just the third player in MLB history to hit home runs both as a teenager (he was two months shy of his 20th birthday when he took Mark Langston deep on September 9, 1988) and as a 40-year-old. The first two men on that list were Ty Cobb and Rusty Staub.
3. Gary is now a player agent, most notably representing Pirates' reliever Jason Grilli.
11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I remember the uproar surrounding San Diego's fire sale in midseason 1993. They unloaded Greg Harris, Bruce Hurst, and Fred McGriff, but it was the deal that sent Sheffield to the Marlins that started it all. Of course, that's the trade that brought Trevor Hoffman to the Padres.
Bill James Said: "Made 34 errors at third base, giving him an .899 fielding percentage, the worst in the major leagues at any position in several years."
On This Date in 1993: January 13. How about a crop of middling free agent signings? The Giants add first baseman Todd Benzinger and outfielder Mark Carreon to the fold, and pitcher Craig Lefferts signs with the Rangers.
The Padres fire sale of '93 broke my heart. Even though Tony Gwynn WAS (and still is, for the most part) San Diego baseball, my favorite players were Fred McGriff and Gary Sheffield. Sheff's was the first batting stance I ever learned to imitate. This is one of my favorite cards of his. Kinda fell out of love w/Gary after he left SD, but have always stayed a McGriff fan.
ReplyDeleteCrazy stat: Sheffield has more hits than Ted Williams.
Yeah, Sheffield always struck me as a guy that you would only root for if he was on your team.
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