Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
By Will Weiss
At the Winter Meetings in 2003 in New Orleans, not long after news broke that Gary Sheffield—then a free agent—would sign with the Yankees, I asked his former manager at the time, Bobby Cox, the kind of player he was, how he would fit in the Yankee clubhouse and most importantly, and how he would get along with Joe Torre.
"Joe's gonna love him. He never gave me a problem," was Cox's response.
While Sheff was in uniform for the Yankees—for the first two years at least—he was arguably the most important hitter in the lineup. He provided protection for Derek Jeter in the three slot and for Alex Rodriguez or Jason Giambi if he batted fifth, got on base and drove in runs. His right-handed bat gave Torre the option to alternate lefty-righty from one through nine, which he loved. And he had a competitive, angry edge from an everyday player not seen since Paul O'Neill's retirement. He played hurt and he played hard. His teammates respected him.
That reputation, at least among his former Yankee teammates, is likely gone.
By now, most of you have either read or heard Sheffield's scathing and inflammatory remarks toward Torre and how the Yankees as an organization treat their black players. These comments, whether true or not, detract from the Yankees' racial history. The Yankees were one of the last teams to integrate; Elston Howard didn't join the big club until 1955, nearly seven years to the day Jackie Robinson debuted with the Dodgers. And while they're a more diverse group now, with at least four Latinos in the starting lineup on a given night, Derek Jeter is the lone black player on the active roster (more on this later).
I've been studying and analyzing Gary Sheffield's racially-motivated commentary since the GQ article broke six weeks ago, and when I saw some of the most recent statements, which will air tonight on HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," my knee-jerk reaction was, "Here we go again."
Sheffield has been publicly criticizing the Yankees since last September, around the time began taking ground balls and working with Don Mattingly at first base and later expressed his dismay at the situation and harped on his worth in right field over Bobby Abreu. On YES Network's pregame coverage of Game 4 in Detroit last October, Sheffield questioned Joe Torre's decision to drop A-Rod to eighth in the batting order. Over the winter, at a charity event in New York, he railed the Yankees' front office operation, claiming there were too many "middle men" getting in the way of decisions that should have been Brian Cashman's.
It's at the point where nothing Sheffield says should surprise us. Many people I've spoken to on the topic have asked my opinion, and when I asked theirs in return, various incarnations of, "He's an ass," and "I can't believe he said that," were the standard responses. Similar reactions were given to Kenny Lofton's support of Sheffield's thesis. Buster Olney said as much, pointing out the obvious hole in Sheffield's claim:
"You cannot on one hand indicate that Torre treats black players differently than white players, and on the other hand say that he is not a racist. That makes no sense, and it is irresponsible."
Stephen A. Smith, who at least in the New York papers, gets called out for being an apologist for players in similar situations like this, said on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" Sunday afternoon, "When you bring up race, regardless of who you may be, the reality is, you've got to substantiate it. You can't just throw out vague comments like that, such inflammatory and incendiary comments, and not back it up with some hardcore information."
The greatest question for me was Sheffield's definition of "different treatment." In my experience covering the team from 2004-2006—granted, I wasn't around the team every day—I saw no evidence of racism on the part of Joe Torre, or anyone else on the team. Whatever animosity there was, I gathered it was baseball-related. With Lofton in particular, I recall an incident in Boston in September of '04, when Lofton collided with Doug Mientkiewicz at first base, and later, charged in to take on Trot Nixon in a bench-clearing brawl. Lofton's defense was, "Watch the tape. I did nothing wrong." Several other players, including A-Rod, when asked about the series of events and Lofton's role in them, offered little more than a cold "No comment."
Lofton came to the Yankees thinking he'd be the starting center fielder, and when he hit .174 that spring and Bernie Williams beat him out, the way it was portrayed was Torre was playing favorites. From a baseball perspective, Williams was the lesser of two evils, but Lofton thought he was the better player and held a grudge. I remember interviewing Lofton near the middle of that season, during a period when he had played once in 10 days, and he looked lost. He kept saying, "I should be playing, man." He hated being a Yankee as a part-time player.
Now, Lofton offers Sheffield support by saying, "All I can say is, Sheffield knows what he's talking about. That's all I'm going to say." What does Sheffield know that we don't? Did Lofton add anything here except comedy? Did anyone take his statement seriously?
Racism in sports is a broad and difficult topic to tackle because of the fear it strikes into us. We shouldn't dismiss what Sheffield said, because there are many ways to interpret what he told Andrea Kremer in the HBO interview.
Overall, I found the local coverage to be lacking in depth. It was as if the writers were tired of conjuring stories and dealing with more Sheffield blather. There was little beyond the face value of Sheffield's statements. Much of that was left to the blog/board community, which has its benefits, but I believe this is a time where writers can really shine on an intellectual front. It'll be dredged up again in a month when the Tigers visit the Stadium.
That's not to say there wasn't good and engaging coverage. There were a few articles I found particularly intriguing:
1. Ken Davidoff of Newsday was courageous enough to admit that to "evaluate of the veracity of Sheffield's comments" was beyond his scope. It takes guts to admit when you're out of your element. But in examining how Torre employed Lofton, Tony Womack and Tom Gordon—perhaps this is just my interpretation—he indirectly evaluated the veracity of Sheffield's comments.
2. Was Sheffield's interview a "dose of reality," as Daily News media critic Bob Raissman put it? Raissman opined that Sheffield's comments tell more about the subjects of his ire than they do about him.
"Most of them [writers] trivialize what Sheffield says by labeling him as nothing more than an angry black man," Raissman wrote. "Funny, you did not hear much from the same mouths last week last week when Cal Ripken Jr. said he doesn't want to know what went on in the steroids era."
Raissman is right. Writers and talking heads alike had no problem slamming Mark McGwire for his weak testimony in Congress. Ripken is still a prominent figure and will give his Hall of Fame induction speech in two weeks. He should be taken to task also.
I was also disappointed that we didn't hear anything from Torre, Jeter or Brian Cashman, either in defense of themselves or to present the organization's position.
This is important, because it brings up another issue regarding what we expect from professional athletes as people. Consider this astute observation from Kremer:
"We want our sports characters to talk to us and be honest and open," she says. "Then when they do, the media bashes them."
How many times has this subject come up in relation to Derek Jeter? Jeter has cultivated an image like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, where to say nothing is the best and safest course of action. It would be great for a change to see anything besides an, "I've got no comment on that," regarding off-field matters or personal attacks. At least Joe Torre, when asked to rebut Sheffield's claims, said he was uncomfortable discussing the subject. Perhaps they believed the comments were so outrageous they shouldn't be dignified with a retort of any kind. But Sheffield singled them out, as he claimed to be singled out on various occasions, and I know I would have been interested in hearing some sort of rebuttal.
USA Today's Michael McCarthy suggested there's still time for Torre to speak.
"Torre might want to follow Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams, who hit back hard in the media after Frank Thomas ripped his former team in a 2006 interview," McCarthy wrote.
Williams called Thomas an idiot, said the team didn't need him, and offered a "good riddance," and the issue, for the most part, was dead until the first meeting of the season between the A's and White Sox.
3. Tigers beat writer Tom Gage of the Detroit News used every possible quote Sheffield could spout in his recap of the HBO interview. Gage used Sheffield to compare the ethnic dynamic of the Tigers' clubhouse to the Yankees'.
4. Some strong fan response on the AOL Fanhouse board and from YanksBlog.
Gary Sheffield's comments taken alone are irresponsible, as Olney and Smith suggested. However, while I disagree with much of what he said—I don't believe Joe Torre is a racist at all, and the assertion that Derek Jeter doesn't count as a black man is absurd to me—I do not believe Sheffield was out of line. He is free to speak his mind, and in my dealings with him, I don't get the sense he just randomly selects a topic and rants on it without provocation.
If nothing else, Sheffield, who is on his way to becoming an even more polarizing figure than Barry Bonds, prompted another wave of dialogue on a very sensitive topic. He's not afraid to talk about it. Are we?
Until next week…
Paraphrased from my post in the last thread, the HBO comments hold a grain of sense if seen through the light of his GQ comments about Latino players. Many (presumably white) fans have responded with examples of Bernie Williams and Mariano Rivera as counter-evidence; but the point was that Sheffield feels that American blacks were treated differently than Latino blacks.
Daryl Strawberry's emphatic denial seems to carry a lot more weight than Lofton's support. But as a WASPy fellow, I tend to get in a lot of trouble discussing racial matters, so I'll stop there.
Reposted from the last thread:
"Bernie (who's Latino :) should have been the DH in 2004. Having Big Rube on the roster had a certain way of obfuscating things for Torre. And Lofton was an equivalent hitter as Rube but an above average CF. Suffice it to say, if Torre played it right, Lofton is the CF in 2004-2005 while Bernie is the DH. Indeed, that arrangement may have lasted through last year too."
Instead, they were looking at Bubba Crosby in CF for Game 5 of the 2005 ALDS (whereas Lofton was the DH in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS). It took Torre a full year to realize what Lofton saw, and was pissed about, in the middle of 2004. And history has shown he still had a lot left.
Otherwise - great analysis. Thanks.
I'll say I'm not surprised to see Sheffield make incendiary statements about someone he clearly holds a grudge against (Torre).
Finally, I disagree with Kramer's point about athletes speaking their minds. I would love it if, say, Tom Brady used his fame to constantly direct the world's eyes to the horrors in Darfur and call for action. I would love to see Tiger Woods take the hordes of press that cover him at the majors to the nearest inner city area, and shine some light on the issues faced by the poor people of all skin colors that live in daily poverty.
But Sheffield, given his track record, is bringing up a non-topic. Racism still exists in this country, no doubt. I've seen it myself firsthand. Its something we should talk about. But that's not what Sheffield is talking about.
I'm sure there is still some racism in the major leagues, and I wish there wasn't. That would be a fine discussion to have. But that's not what Sheffield is talking about.
No, Sheffield has called his ex-manager a racist. And without proof - beyond his own words, and those of Lofton's, both of whom hold a grudge against Torre, which makes their words suspect. That is exactly the kind of racial discussion we shouldn't be wasting time with. It is speculation, "he said-he said", with no way of knowing the truth for certain, and enough evidence to refute what Sheffield claims (hat tip to Tyler Kepner: http://tinyurl.com/3e3dm3) - which he himself does later in the interview!
If Sheffield said something important, or had specific proof, I'd be more inclined to listen, or participate further in the discussion he started. But he didn't, and he doesn't, so I'm not going to.
4 He seemed to leave ATL on good terms, and played his heart out for his next contract too.
Olney: "You cannot on one hand indicate that Torre treats black players differently than white players, and on the other hand say that he is not a racist. That makes no sense, and it is irresponsible."
It makes plenty of sense. You can treat different groups of people differently and not be racist. If I call a sandwich a hoagie and all my friends call it a hoagie and you show up and call it a hero and I look at you funny I'm treating you differently. That's a communication problem, not racism. People of different races can have communication problems that aren't due to racism.
Davidoff says he's not qualified to comment because he's a white guy. Sure he's white but he's a white guy living in New York who is a reporter. Does he have eyes? Ears? It's not like he lives in Vanillaburg, Idaho and has never seen a black person. I'm not saying he has to be Tavis Smiley in his column but it's incredibly weak for him to punt the responsibility for his own opinion based on his own skin color. I'm white as Davidoff but I've had enough dealings with people of all races and social backgrounds to form at least rudimentary opinions on the differences between people. Why can't Davidoff?
Race isn't a taboo subject for white people. It's a difficult subject, but not taboo. Olney imagines a world with no shades of gray and Davidoff recuses himself from the discussion (falsely some would say because he sure chooses to repeat a lot after his disclaimer). Both approaches are lame.
He left NY on bad terms, apparently; LA on awful terms; and Milwaukee, well, I'm not sure there are words to describe it.
In any case, none of us are in the locker room so how can any of us make a judgment about Joe's actions? If Sheffield and Lofton felt that Joe treated them differently because they are African American, then they have every right to express their opinions. Bringing up Joe's friendship with Bob Gibson and that he treats Derek Jeter like son does not invalidate Sheffield and Lofton's perceptions of their experiences in the Yankees clubhouse.
Hmmm...now I think we're making up terminology here. Since when does racism necessarily involve hate or harm, or that it is qualitatively different from prejudice? Any definition of the words that I could find show racism merely to be a subset of prejudice.
No in is trying to "invalidate" Sheffield's perceptions or deny him the right to express his opinion. But freedom of speech comes with the responsibility of repercussions. I have the right to walk into a room and accuse my co-worker of racism, or sexism, or some other inexcusable behavior. And I may even really believe that this is the case. But the accused has the right to question my perception, and I might reasonably be asked to defend my perception with some examples or evidence.
He says he threw away balls in Milwaukee. What's to defend? Then the same writer runs another sympathetic story about Sheffield's outrage - how could people think he threw balls away? He also goes on to say that if he ever threw a ball away in anger, it was in the minors. God, I'm so glad to hear that.
To this day, people make excuses about his time in Milwaukee and his comments afterwards. The most common is: he was young and immature, he's changed, I'm sure that he regrets what he did and said. Gary Sheffield? Regrets? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. He always talks about being a man - OK, if he regrets what he did, how about saying so, even once?
And how much has he really changed? "If I'm not happy, you don't want me on your team." And people knew, he's just the guy who can back that up.
He publicly badmouthed his teammates in Milwaukee and Los Angeles (the latter while he was still a Dodger). He said he wasn't badmouthing them. He also said that the press all talkto and write about "two players" in the Yankee clubhouse, but everyone knows who the real leader is. Then he said he wasn't saying anything about Jeter or Rodriguez. But he's a great teammate.
He said that management prefers Latin players to American blacks because Latinos are easier to control. Then he says he didn't mean that Latinos were easier to control.
Why keep defending him? Why keep suggesting nuanced interpretations, for a man who wouldn't know nuance if it bit him in the ass? (OK, biting in the ass wouldn't be nuance's style. But you get my point.)
So when he says he didn't call Joe a racist, that means nothing to me; he always says he didn't say what he said. He said Joe called him out publicly because he was black, and that the white players would be treated with kid gloves. That's not like using a different word for a hero, and it's not just about whites and blacks communicating differently. I'm sorry, but those are completely specious arguments. And Sheffield hasn't made them, so why make them for him?
If you want to call it prejudice instead of racism, that's fine. It's also splitting hairs in this context. He's accusing Torre of repellent, racist behavior and attitudes, behavior that would get Torre fired and the Yankees sued.
Did he ever talk to Torre about it?
So please, stop making excuses for the guy. He says he speaks his mind, I'm going to believe it.
And of course Sheffield and Lofton have a right to their opinions, and to voice their opinions. No one's trying to stop them - he's getting to voice them on HBO, for god's sake. But I also have the right to call him an ignorant lout who has never once taken responsibility for his actions, and who now makes rather terrible insinuations. And when he goes off accusing others, as he does all the time, it'd be refreshing to see him own up just once.
What's to be gained by responding? That would only give credibility, to some degree, of Sheffield's statements.
I'm sorry you're disappointed, have you ever needed to respond to non-specific whispers about your integrity? I hope you didn't ignore any behind the scenes rumblings.
Ungrateful to say the least.
As I have quit watching ESPN, I didn't see the BBTN with Stephen A. However, I do know that he's not a regular on the show. Was he brought on in some sort of "racism expert" capacity? If so, could The Worldwide Leader be any more ridiculous?
I wouldn't say a thing about having respect for Sheffield.
13 The bottom of Tyler Kepner's blog post I linked to in 3 has a comment from Cashman to exactly that affect. That's about how I expected them to respond.
10 How do we judge? Imperfectly at best. You're right, we just don't know.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't look at everything we can and try to reach a conclusion. When I do that, I find Sheffield's statements to be not believable. I see enough evidence - beyond Bob Gibson and Derek Jeter - that suggests Torre is not racist, and that he does not act based on prejudice due to skin color or ethnicity. And that Sheffield is not a very credible source.
Also, I think we do have to consider what Sheffield says, but that absolutely doesn't mean we can't try to understand what he "means" too. My impression from reading quotes of his recent remarks is that he both said and meant that he perceives Torre as having a different approach with black players than he does with white players. And Sheffield absolutely does not mean "black" as a shade of skin. He says that his own son isn't black - that instead, his son is "like Jeter". He does mean black as a cultural marker, which is why it's so easy for him to dismiss as non-black latin players that also have black skin.
So for me the question really is, how does Torre treat black players differently from white players? And Sheffield answers that question. He says that while Torre treats white players like men he doesn't treat black players that way.
In my opinion, that's the center of this issue: Sheffield believes that he wasn't treated like a man by Torre. He goes a step further, likely on tenuous ground, when attributes to Torre a motivation for that treatment: race. We can separate those two issues. Did Torre not treat Sheffield like a man? If not, why not?
Sheffield has repeatedly in the past, and he repeats it in his recent remarks, said that he wants to be "respected." One instance where Sheffield thought he was not being treated like a man was when it took a "month and a half to get respect." I don't think I'm assuming too much to say that Sheffield apparently thought that he should have gotten respect from the outset.
In my role as a mediator (it's not my job title, and I'm not certified), I find that this is almost always the central issue in disputes in which race comes up - how and when respect is given.
And it's pretty impressive to me that Sheffield is talking about culture with as much nuance as he is. It certainly adds context to his assertion that Torre isn't a "racist." And we should be sophisticated enough to understand what he means. As someone who grew up in the Caribbean, where these cultural distinctions are the daily bread of social exchange, I can understand how this dispute came to this point.
I hope that everyone understands that both of these incredibly successful men can be right in this situation without indicting the other.
For example, I've been in a lot of places where everyone earns respect by enduring being treated like crap and taking one for the team - it's called hazing in some contexts, and it's pretty typical in the US. I also know that where I grew up, that if you tried to do something like hazing you could be literally killed. Public dignity was too precious a commodity to ever be set aside.
But you also have to put this in the context of Sheffield's history. Everywhere he goes he talks about "respect" and being treated "like a man." I have no idea what he means by "respect" in this case; in his past, respect has almost always meant money. Quite literally.
When he says he's not treated "like a man," Im not sure what that means, either; he usually seems to equate it with people trying to "control" him. He's always seemed to me to have something of a paranoid streak - going back to Milwaukee, when he said that Harry Dalton had sent his daughter to spy on him in restaurants.
So they're nice-sounding phrases, but in the past they've turned out to be rather less than they seem, and I don't know if that's any different now. Furthermore, he's always blamed everyone else around him for just about everything, and shown quite a penchant for lashing out as well.
If any of that's changed, and if there's any nuance in his position, I think it behooves him (rather than Torre) to explain himself. Those are harsh accusations.
And, personally, I greatly admire your attunement to nuance, but I don't think he shares it. I know his history well, and I see no reason to believe that he's capable of it.
And perhaps, they are correct. I don't get it. I've never been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, and instances of mainstream contemporary culture insulting my heritage (half-Italian, half-WASP) are very rare. So I do not know what that is like. Until I enter into a conversation with people who understand my lack of understanding, I choose to remain silent and conduct myself in the least offensive way possible.
23 Respect is paying him what he thinks he's worth. One of his issues during his Dodger tenure was that there were inferior players making more $$ than him, IIRC.
FWIW, as much as he runs his mouth, he has always come ready to play, no matter where he was. Personally, I would pay him no mind, let him blow off steam, and watch him rake.
Nobody forced him to sign the contract, and he was pretty damn happy when he did. So if you really think $10 million is disrespectful, then you act like a man and play out the contract and negotiate a bigger one. Welcome to grown-up life, Gary.
Yeah, he thought there were less worthy players making too much money. So he went to reporters and named those players, and denigrated them publicly - his teammates.
There's a minimum level of respect that any person deserves, but that's just a matter of basic civility. Beyond that, I'm sorry, but respect isn't something you demand, it's something you earn. Gary Sheffield can hit a ball really hard. But everything he's ever said publicly has been disrespectful to somebody, or to a team, or to baseball, or whatever. Where does he get off demanding it from others?
Without quotas, prestigious universities would not (and did not) admit certain people based on the color of their skin. This is a fact. It is the history of education in American.
These much historical evidence to support the idea that African American's (particularly athletes) are judged more harshly or under stricter standards than Caucasians in the media in America. Barry Bonds is likely sensitive to this.
Gee. you really don't get it.
Just because you dismiss the source, doesn't make the comments any less valid.
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