Sheffield’s swinging hard and fast

nothing new there then.

This time it’s, it’s not at a high fast ball but at his club and his team mates…nothing new there then 😉

Yup once again Sheff has gone off on one in the New York magazine slagging off the Yankee organisation and two of the star players, though he didn’t actually name Jeter or A-Rod who else would the “media favourites” be, with the same ferocity he approaches his batting – does anyone swing faster or harder ?

I know who the leader is on the team, I ain’t going to say who it is, but I know who it is. I know who the team feeds off. I know who the opposing team comes in knowing they have to defend to stop the Yankees.

I know this. The people don’t know. Why? The media don’t want them to know. They want to promote two players in a positive light, and everyone else is garbage.Gary Sheffield

Jeter is our captain. He’s not the leader. He’s the captain.Gary Sheffield

Well Sheff “put up” last night in the 6-2 Yanks win over the Blue Jays, Jeter and Rodriguez faced some questions about Sheffield’s comments, though Jeter was happy to show team unity after Sheffield’s homer in the first driving Jeter in, manager Joe Torre said he’d have a word with the player –

He certainly doesn’t shy away from any controversy or back off the way he feels just because it makes somebody else happy. But he knows what his job is. No matter what the situation or what the talk is, he still goes after it.Joe Torre

Sheff decided not to talk to the media after the game, what a surprise after his comments about their presence in the locker room

This is the first team I’ve been on where no one sits at their locker. It’s where you build your chemistry from, how you get to know each other, just talking about life. I’m used to having six chairs around me, but here if there are six chairs, then there’s going to be 20 reporters around me.Gary Sheffield

Then the club got a mauling, firstly about the way they do things off the field

It’s not a family-oriented team. In L.A., wives can fly on the plane; with the Yankees they can’t. With other teams, the wives always have functions to bring them together. Not here.Gary Sheffield

Then about how he was insulted when general manager Brian Cashman offered him a two-year, $18 million contract before last season. He ended up signing a three-year, $39 million deal.

I just came off 39 home runs and 132 RBIs and you ain’t got nobody on your team that can put up those numbers, and you ain’t gonna get anyone who is going to. But George [Steinbrenner] asked me not to take it as an insult and kept pursuing me. I said, ‘Fine, I don’t have to speak to anyone in the organization to still do my job.’Gary Sheffield

Well is anyone really surprised, it’s happened at all of Sheff’s previous clubs, it’s what you get along with the great talent (Harball Times ranking clutch hitters have Sheffield top), though Gary has denied making the remarks saying things were added to “juice up” the story.

It’s typical. That’s the life of being me. It’s tough for me to do interviews when people have pens that have motives. It was supposed to be a positive interview.

I don’t have to speak about me. My numbers speak for me. Gary Sheffield

Jeter and A-Rod are either quite happy that Sheff has been misquoted or are keeping clubhouse matters behind closed doors.

From what I understand he never mentioned my name. My name was brought into it, but it never came out of his mouth.Derek Jeter

Every family has issues. When you think about what happens in other clubhouses this is quite trivial. I love Gary and in the course of eight months if family are not going to say things that they regret or think from the hip it’s not real.Alex Rodriguez

I have to say I was glad the proposed trade with the Mets never got off the ground, Sheffield is one of my favourite Yanks (on the park) nothing better than seeing him waggle that huge looking bat before viciously smashing a ball into the stands.