I admit it. Before we signed Shef, I was vehemently against it. I really try not to let the media’s often inaccurate portrayals of players turn me against them in their pre-Met days (the Boston media’s portrait of Pedro being exhibit A), but I definitely was against Shef. I felt that his many baseball addresses probably confirmed his reputation as a negative influence and a headache waiting to happen, although many teammates have had a lot of good to say about him, he has been on a lot of good teams, and he has won a ring. And after watching the Met Geriatric Home being manned by the very nice and excellent teammate (but aging and injury-prone) Pedro, as well as Alou and El Duque, Shef’s age was also not inspiring, even if he is two years younger than I am.
Being a Kool Aid-guzzling Omar apologist, as many wise folks on another site have graciously observed, I was immediately willing to give Shef the benefit of the doubt the moment he signed, and I stopped thinking about his many different teams and his comments about Torre, and I started thinking about what it would be like if he could turn back the clock a bit. And not even really that long—he was outstanding in ‘05, hurt in ’06, declining but very productive in ’07, and maybe injuries really were the main factor in his down season last year.
Now, what do we have? Can he still get around on the fastball or what? Was the outside pitch he swung at Friday night the first bad pitch he has swung at in a Met uniform? A .441 OBP? Stealing 2nd and hustling over to 3rd and scoring the winning run? That absolute frozen rope of a homer the other day? And I think we can all agree that Shef does not know the meaning of the word pressure.
(AP Photo/Paul J. Bereswill)
In addition, we have to also evaluate Shef based on his obvious love of the game. 21 years in the bigs, has made $150 million, and could have sat at home and cashed Detroit’s giant checks or sat by the pool anywhere on Earth. But he wanted to play, and on a good team. He chose a team where playing time at the time of his signing was far less than certain, and he was willing to bide his time and to have to earn it. This really is impressive for a man with his resume and wealth. Shef is not making one penny more by playing than he would have by not playing, and he has been nothing less than a perfect citizen judging by everything we have seen as fans. I saw him say in an interview before he got really hot that even if he went back to the bench, he would be happy to just stay ready to help the team any way he could. Even the thought that he was just hanging around to hit number 500 was very quickly dismissed with his recent play.
Seems like we have a great player, surely in the twilight of his career, but one who apparently really realizes how lucky he is to be playing baseball at the highest level at age 40, and obviously wants to be part of another winning team. And one whose discipline at the plate and baseball instincts are nothing short of fantastic. Go ahead, pitch around Shef, and his OBP will creep towards .500.
Regardless of his past, Gary Sheffield’s first couple of months as a Met have been a revelation. He has been fantastic on the field, and by all available accounts, off of it as well. We all need to cheer for a tremendously wealthy 40-year-old who has been at the very top of his sport for many years and was willing to come here as a bench player for the chance to just continue being part of a winning baseball team, knowing he may play very little and that this stop may be his last. He certainly has been making the very most of it all thus far.
There is a lot of season left, but it is time to raise another glass of Kool Aid in Omar’s honor. This was a great signing. At least we have one gritty player now.
24 comments
dirtysanchez
5/31/2009-11:35am at 11:35 am (UTC -4)
lol….not much of an opinion i see king lol
GravediggerHebner
5/31/2009-11:36am at 11:36 am (UTC -4)
“Why are you sitting on this fence?”
rustyjr
5/31/2009-11:40am at 11:40 am (UTC -4)
Great piece kong – needed a couple of grumpy old men references – but great piece all around – welcome aboard to the staff
GravediggerHebner
5/31/2009-11:43am at 11:43 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, teams fall asleep on Sheff and the SB. Even last season aka “lost season” he stole 9, and had 22 in 2007. Thank you Detroit for our minimum salaried productive good citizen clean up hitter.
I can’t help but think the Dwight Gooden factor was key in his choosing to come here. Thank you Doctor K.
rustyjr
5/31/2009-11:45am at 11:45 am (UTC -4)
I agree – and it’s nice to see doc back in the fold regardless
Kingman 26
5/31/2009-11:49am at 11:49 am (UTC -4)
I was shocked at that SB total….and truthfully, while I have been aware of his hitting prowess forever, I did not realize how good his career OBP was, and the fact that he has never struck out more than 83 times in a season!
QnsNative718
5/31/2009-11:46am at 11:46 am (UTC -4)
Great post, Brock! Finally!
Kingman 26
5/31/2009-1:01pm at 1:01 pm (UTC -4)
Thanks Qns! I had two posts ready, and was going to post my review of the latest Brock Landers and Chest Rockwell movie, but went with this instead….
dentulous
5/31/2009-11:48am at 11:48 am (UTC -4)
I too was against the pickup. I just love when they prove me wrong. Hopefully he can keep his production up for the rest of the season, or at least a good portion of it. Totally worth 400k.
Oh, I also love the new blog layout. You guys are doing fabulous.
rustyjr
5/31/2009-11:51am at 11:51 am (UTC -4)
Didn’t 90% of the readers ok the site that must not be mentioned (t.m) say they didn’t was chef – we wiz wrong
dirtysanchez
5/31/2009-11:58am at 11:58 am (UTC -4)
good piece king.
I wasnt really against the shef signing in that at the very least he was going to be better than marlon anderson. The mets would not be where they are today if not for sheffield. I think what he has done this year will help his case more when he retires and awaits entry into the HOF. Again i guess we can all thank detroit who is picking up the 14mil tab on shef.
DNDJohan aka kistics
5/31/2009-12:04pm at 12:04 pm (UTC -4)
It’s been a terrible year for the city of Detroit…
dirtysanchez
5/31/2009-12:09pm at 12:09 pm (UTC -4)
lol..add cleveland to that list…go magic ;p
prismo
5/31/2009-11:58am at 11:58 am (UTC -4)
Hey Brock, remember when I “guaranteed” to you that the Mets wouldn’t sign Sheffield? I’m glad I was wrong!
DNDJohan aka kistics
5/31/2009-12:00pm at 12:00 pm (UTC -4)
Great post kingman! I think a lot of us were did not like Sheff’s signing. It’s still early to decide whether it was a good signing or not, but so far Sheff has been nothing but great with the team.
GravediggerHebner
5/31/2009-12:35pm at 12:35 pm (UTC -4)
Oh boy. Jerry says “I went back to see him (Beltran) and he’s laying on the table, you know dehydrated and stuff, so hopefully, hopefully, we can use him as a pinch hitter today.”
dirtysanchez
5/31/2009-12:40pm at 12:40 pm (UTC -4)
supposedly these are the side effects of the shot beltran took…
GravediggerHebner
5/31/2009-12:49pm at 12:49 pm (UTC -4)
Kingman, I found a picture of the Sheffield stolen base that lead to the winning run Friday night. Let me know if you would like it for this entry, and if so where it should go.
Kingman 26
5/31/2009-12:59pm at 12:59 pm (UTC -4)
Thanks Grave! How about either right before the first paragraph, or right between the third and fourth; wherever you think looks better….
prismo
5/31/2009-12:58pm at 12:58 pm (UTC -4)
Dirty, you gotta turn comments on for the game thread…that’s a demerit.
GravediggerHebner
5/31/2009-12:59pm at 12:59 pm (UTC -4)
Touché
dirtysanchez
5/31/2009-1:19pm at 1:19 pm (UTC -4)
lol sorry guys its on now
metsfan4decades
5/31/2009-6:09pm at 6:09 pm (UTC -4)
Great post, Kingman. Just got a chance to read it.
Sums up my feelings on the subject almost exactly.
I wasn’t enamored of Sheff’s signing either. Not necessarily b/c I thought he’d be a negative influence in the club house, or that I thought he was ‘done’….it’s b/c I thought we had a glut of OFs at the time and even though Murph wasn’t playing LF well, I thought it would take away time from him learning that position and/or take away Church’s playing time. I thought Church deserved a shot to see if he could be the everyday RF, and thought Murph needed to be in the line up consistently.
Well….I’m raising my Kool-Aid in a toast as well. Credit Omar on this. With the way our walking wounded went down – both many and fast – and Sheff not one of them, he’s stepped up to the plate and proven to be just what the Doctor ordered these past several weeks.
Will it last? Can he stay healthy? Only time will tell. But with Delgado out, the moving of Murph to 1st base was actually a good thing and for now, Sheff’s proving he’s more than capable of patrolling LF and doing what he’s been doing in the clean up spot.
gategem
5/31/2009-10:21pm at 10:21 pm (UTC -4)
Excellent post Kingman.
I’ve always believed that Sheffs incredible baseball talents clearly overwhelmed his personality problems (and I still don’t recall whether or not he ever gave a female reporter a rat for a present). But I thought Sheff was done. However, when Keith pointed out that the bat speed was still there I began to wonder as to why Sheffs production had fallen off to where the Tigers let him ago while paying his huge salary. I don’t know why they let him go but it is obvious he can still produce.
The Mets had the opportunity to acquire Sheff after the 2001 season when the Dodgers were looking to jettison the miscreant. Instead Sheffield was traded to the Braves and from what I understand was a positive influence in the 2 years he was there.