Gary Sheffield

Gary Antonian Sheffield was born on November 18, 1968, and played Major League Baseball as an outfielder for eight different teams between 1988 and 2009. After retiring, he became a sports agent. Although he spent most of his time in right field, Sheffield also appeared in left field, at third base, shortstop, and a few games at first base. His major-league stops included the Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and New York Mets.

The Brewers made him the sixth overall pick in the 1986 amateur draft after a standout high school career at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Florida. He batted and threw right-handed. Sheffield hit his 500th home run on April 17, 2009. At the time of his final game, he ranked second among active players in walks (1,475), third in runs (1,636), fourth in RBIs (1,676), fifth in hits (2,689) and home runs (509), and sixth in hit-by-pitches (135).

He is the only player ever to record 100 RBIs in a season for five different teams. His swing combined raw speed with precise control; despite his high home run total, he struck out more than 80 times in only two of his 22 seasons and finished among the top 20 all-time walk leaders. Sportswriter Joe Posnanski wrote, “I can’t imagine there has ever been a scarier hitter to face,” and his first manager, Tom Trebelhorn, said, “Gary can turn on a .38-caliber bullet.”

Sheffield is the nephew of Dwight Gooden. After retiring, he worked as an agent, representing former reliever Jason Grilli. He was named in the Mitchell Report and implicated in the BALCO scandal regarding performance-enhancing drugs.

Sheffield grew up in Tampa, Florida, in the Belmont Heights area near the Ponce de Leon projects. He lived with his uncle Dwight Gooden, who became a star pitcher for the New York Mets. Because Gooden is only four years older, they played baseball often, and Sheffield learned to hit a fastball from him. In Little League, Sheffield was a good hitter but struggled with his temper. Once, after being benched for arriving late to practice, he chased his coach with a bat and was kicked off the team for a year. At age eleven, he made the Belmont Heights Little League All-Stars, a team that included future first-round pick Ty Griffin, future major leaguer Derek Bell, and other eventual MLB players. That team reached the 1980 Little League World Series finals but lost 4–3 to Taiwan. Sheffield set a doubles record in that tournament that stood until 2012.

In 1983, Sheffield joined the Hillsborough High School varsity team. By his junior year, he had bulked up to 175 pounds and played pitcher and third baseman. As a senior, his fastball reached the upper 80s, and he showed consistent home-run power. He batted .500 with 15 home runs in 62 official at-bats that season and was named Gatorade National Player of the Year.

The Milwaukee Brewers selected Sheffield with the sixth overall pick in the 1986 MLB draft. He later said he would have played college baseball for the Miami Hurricanes if he hadn’t been a first-round pick. He started his pro career with the Helena Brewers of the Pioneer League, batting .365 with 71 RBIs in 57 games. The main question was his position; he was tried at shortstop but struggled with errors and wild throws. In 1987, assigned to Stockton in the Class-A California League, his defense improved and he led the league in RBIs with 103. At year’s end, he was voted the Brewers’ best prospect. In his third season, he moved from Double-A to the majors, hitting .327 with 28 homers and 118 RBIs in 134 games for the El Paso Diablos and Denver Zephyrs.

Sheffield made his MLB debut on September 3, 1988, after a September call-up. Still a teenager, he hit a home run for his first career hit off Mark Langston but finished the season with a .238 average and four homers in 24 games. In 1989, after mediocre play and injuries that cost him two months, the Brewers moved him from shortstop to third base, replacing him with Bill Spiers. Sheffield said he was shocked by the move and criticized the team, also claiming his race affected how he was treated by players, management, and fans in Milwaukee. He batted .247 with five homers and 32 RBIs that year. In 1990, under new hitting coach Don Baylor, he hit .294 with 10 home runs. His final season with the Brewers was cut short by wrist, thumb, and shoulder injuries, limiting him to 50 games.

On March 26, 1992, the Brewers traded Sheffield to the San Diego Padres for Ricky Bones, José Valentin, and Matt Mieske. On May 12, 1992, he faced his uncle Dwight Gooden for the first time in a major-league game, getting one hit in three at-bats. That season, his first All-Star year, he chased the Triple Crown; he finished with 33 home runs (two fewer than teammate Fred McGriff) and 100 RBIs (nine fewer than leader Darren Daulton).