Misplaced Pages

Gary Sheffield: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 21:42, 15 April 2005 edit207.154.74.121 (talk)No edit summary← Previous edit Revision as of 21:42, 15 April 2005 edit undo207.154.74.121 (talk)No edit summaryNext edit →
Line 1: Line 1:
] ]
'''Gary Antonian Sheffield''' (born ], ]) is an American ] player. Sheffield was born in ], ], where he played on the same high school team as his uncle ]. He was originally drafted by the ] as an infielder. Subsequently, he has played for the ], ], ], ] and the New York Yankees. He has posted All-Star-caliber numbers wherever he's played. Sheffield is one of the most feared right handed hitters in all of baseball. He broke out in 1990 with the Milwaukee Brewers, hitting .294 with 67 ]s. He also had a team high 25 ]. In 1991 he was limited to only 50 games because of lingering wrist and shoulder problems. After playing for Milwaukee, admitted he made errors on purpose, in order to get out of town. '''Gary Antonian Sheffield''' (born ], ]) is an American ] player. Sheffield was born in ], ], where he played on the same high school team as his uncle ]. He was originally drafted by the ] as an infielder. Subsequently, he has played for the ], ], ], ] and the New York Yankees. He has posted All-Star-caliber numbers wherever he's played. Sheffield is one of the most feared right handed hitters in all of baseball. He broke out in 1990 with the Milwaukee Brewers, hitting .294 with 67 ]s. He also had a team high 25 ]. In 1991 he was limited to only 50 games because of lingering wrist and shoulder problems.


At the end of 1991, unhappy in Milwaukee, he was traded to the San Diego Padres. He came back strong in 1992 making a run at becoming the first NL Triple Crown winner since Joe Medwick in 1937. Sheffield finished the season with thirty-three ]s and 100 RBIs. He had a .385 on base percentage and hit .330. He also won ] Player of the year, and Comeback Player of the Year (1992). At the end of 1991, unhappy in Milwaukee, he was traded to the San Diego Padres. He came back strong in 1992 making a run at becoming the first NL Triple Crown winner since Joe Medwick in 1937. Sheffield finished the season with thirty-three ]s and 100 RBIs. He had a .385 on base percentage and hit .330. He also won ] Player of the year, and Comeback Player of the Year (1992).

Revision as of 21:42, 15 April 2005

File:Sheff.jpg

Gary Antonian Sheffield (born November 18, 1968) is an American baseball player. Sheffield was born in Tampa, Florida, where he played on the same high school team as his uncle Dwight Gooden. He was originally drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers as an infielder. Subsequently, he has played for the San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees. He has posted All-Star-caliber numbers wherever he's played. Sheffield is one of the most feared right handed hitters in all of baseball. He broke out in 1990 with the Milwaukee Brewers, hitting .294 with 67 RBIs. He also had a team high 25 stolen bases. In 1991 he was limited to only 50 games because of lingering wrist and shoulder problems.

At the end of 1991, unhappy in Milwaukee, he was traded to the San Diego Padres. He came back strong in 1992 making a run at becoming the first NL Triple Crown winner since Joe Medwick in 1937. Sheffield finished the season with thirty-three home runs and 100 RBIs. He had a .385 on base percentage and hit .330. He also won The Sporting News Player of the year, and Comeback Player of the Year (1992).

Sheffield started the 1993 season with the Padres but was traded to the Floride Marlins on June 24th. He made history as the first player from a 1st year expansion team to start an all-star game. Sheffield had an average season (1993 hitting in only 73 runs and stealing 17 bases. His on base percentage was still in the mid to high 300s.

In only 87 games Sheffield hit twenty-seven home runs, breaking the Marlin's club record in the 1994 strike shortened season. His shoulder bothered him again, and he spent two stints on the DL with a bruised rotator cuff and an irritated labrum in his left shoulder. At the time of his injury he had a career high .584 slugging percentage; ninth in the league. Injury plagued him again in the 1995 season with the Marlins. A torn ligament in his left thumb limited him to only 63 games. Still he ranked third on the team with nineteen stolen bases and third with 55 walks. Sheffield had his career best numbers in 1996 with the Marlins. He had Triple Crown stats with 42 homers, 120 RBIs, 118 runs, 163 Hits, 142 walks and played in 161 games. This was his first full year without going on the disabled list. He also broke ten of the Marlin's individual club records. He was also elected that year to his third All-Star game. He finished the year in the top ten in nine offensive catorgies in the National League. In 1997 Sheffield led the World Champion Marlins with a .424 on base percentage and 121 walks. Sheffield wasn't only a great hitter but a deft fielder. He had 14 outfield assists which ranked third in the league. He also had 21 home runs and 71 RBIs ans collected his 1000 career hit off Alan Benes.

During 1998 he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.He played in a combined 130 games with Florida and the Dodgers during that season. Sheffield batted .302 with 22 home runs, and 85 RBIs despite missing the last 25 games. He also swiped twenty bags, making this the first time he had reached the 20/20 plateau. Sheffield struck out only once for every 11.9 at bats. Gary's season ended prematurely with a severely sprained left ankle on August 30th, making him miss the last twenty five games.

In 1999 Sheffield, in his first full season with the Dodgers, batted .304 with 34 home runs and 101 RBIs and again was selected to the All-Star team. he was the first Dodger to play in back to back All-Star Games since Dusty Baker. He had a team high 101 walks, and a .407 on base percentage. On August 22, Sheffield hit his career sixth grand slam off reliever Steve Montgomery. He finished the season strong hitting home runs in four of his last six games.

The 2000 season was one of Gary's best offensive seasons ever. He became the first Dodger to hit .300, drive in 30 HR, 100 RBIs, 100 runs, and 100 BB in two seasons. Sheffield set a Dodger record by hitting his 41st home run, surpassing Mike Piazza. He reached base safely in 123 of 141 games. Sheffield finished with a .438 on base percentage ranked third in the NL. He had the second best home run hitting ratio, a homerun every 11.7 at bats. For one month from June 10 to July 13, he hit .500. This was a marvelous feat, that not many in baseball have accomplished. Sheffield set numerous records in the 2000 season.

In the 2001 season Sheffield played wih a painful sprained left index finger. He had 36 home runs and 100 RBIs hitting .311. Again, his deft fieldwork paid off. His 17 outfield assists ranked second in the league. Most of Sheffield's home runs were clutch hits. Twenty-three of his 36 homeruns gave the Dodgers the lead or tied the game. He hit his 300th career home run on July 21st. Sheffield also extended his career seasons with twenty or more home runs to ten.

Sheffield spent his 2002 season with the Atlanta Braves. He reached base in 52 consecutive games breaking Dale Murphy's Atlanta record of 48 games. However, he had a sub-par season by his standards only hitting twenty five home runs and driving in 84 runs. His hits again were clutch. He had 23 game winning RBIs for the Braves. Sheffield missed ten of his last twelve games because of a sprained left thumb.

After an injury plagued 2002 season, Sheffield resumed his place as one of the most feared hitters in baseball in 2003. He smashed 39 homeruns and drove in 132 runs, breaking the Atlanta record of 127 set by the famous Hank Aaron. He also stole his 200th bag on September 6th of that year off the Pittsburgh Pirates and made his seventh All-Star team appearance as a starting outfielder. Currently, (2004) he is the starting right fielder for the New York Yankees.

He has recently been linked in media reports with the controversial Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, and admitted to having used a BALCO product that contained a steroid. However, he claimed that at the time he used the product, he did not know that it contained steroids.

On April 14, 2005, while playing for the Yankees in a game against the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park, Sheffield was involved in an incident where a fan apparently sruck Sheffield in the face while Sheffield was attempting to field a ball hit to the outfield. Sheffield pushed the fan back, and after throwing the ball back to the infield appeared to consider entering the stands to confront the fan, before regaining his composure. Although most baseball commentators concluded that Sheffield had done nothing wrong, the incident drew headlines because of the melee in 2004 involving players and fans during a Pistons-Pacers NBA game. The incident with Sheffield was part of a continuing debate over player-fan interaction in professional sports.

Sheffield is the nephew of former Mets and Yankees pitcher Dwight Gooden.

External links

Categories: