February 6, 2024 By: Mark Knudson

Being a bad teammate shouldn’t exclude Gary Sheffield from the Hall of Fame

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In his 10^th and final year of eligibility to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America, Gary Sheffield fell short.

Sheffield garnered 63.9% of the vote – just more than 11%, or roughly 45 votes – less than what he needed.

Here are his career stats: Sheff played 22 years and hit 509 home runs – more than Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Willie Stargell, Carl Yastrzemski and newly elected first ballot guy Adrian Beltre. He’s 27^th all-time in homers. He also had a career batting average of .292 and drove in 1,676 runs. That’s more than Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt, Andre Dawson, Chipper Jones, Willie McCovey and Joe DiMaggio.

For the analytics crowd, Sheff had a 140 OPS+, better than Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Ken Griffey, Jr, George Brett, AL Kaline…and recently elected Todd Helton. His 60.5 Wins Above Replacement is more than Hall of Famers like Yogi Berra, Mike Piazza and Fred McGriff…and more than next year’s presumptive first ballot selection Ichiro Suzuki.

In other words, Sheffield very clearly has Hall of Fame credentials.

So what gives?

Why didn’t the writers vote him in?

Oh yes.

The steroid thing.

Sheff appeared in the Mitchell Report, so he must have been a juicer.

Wrong.

If facts still matter, the record shows that Gary tried a “cream” given to him by Barry Bonds, and rubbed some on a sore knee. When he discovered what was in it, he quickly discontinued using the substance and cut off relations with Bonds. Here’s another fact: First ballot Hall of Famer David Ortiz also appears in the Mitchell Report, and its clear his involvement with performance enhancing substances was greater than Sheffield’s. (Spoiler: The outgoing and personable Ortiz was a favorite of fans and media alike.)

There goes that lame excuse. So what’s the real reason for Sheffield’s exclusion?

This is where I have to acknowledge that I spent four seasons as a teammate of Gary’s with the Milwaukee Brewers. That does not, however, mean I’m in any way biased in his favor. I just listed facts, not my opinion. And the facts are what should be considered when it comes to the Hall of Fame.

Clearly that’s not what’s happening in Gary’s case.

My opinion of Gary Sheffield is different. He was not a Hall of Fame teammate, during or after. He was a malcontent for most of his career, most definitely during his four seasons in Milwaukee. He complained about being moved from shortstop to third base, even after our Manager, Tom Trebelhorn, explained that he was “the prototypical power hitting third baseman.” The Brewers bent over backward to appease Gary, their prized first round draft pick. The rest of the clubhouse suffered.

He was traded to San Diego before the start of the 1992 season, just as he was hitting his prime. What does that tell you?

Gary would go on to put up huge numbers for six more teams over 18 years, never spending more than six seasons with any single organization.

That’s what happens when you’re a bad teammate.

Later, many years after I’d retired, I found my name included in a Sports Illustrated story about Gary, who was finishing up his career as a member of the New York Yankees. He told the writer that he once “flattened” me and “knocked (me) into my locker” after I had criticized his defensive play.

The only problem with Gary’s account is that it’s totally, 100% made up. Fabricated. A bald faced lie. (Back in 2004, that was still frowned upon.)

I never criticized a teammate publicly – ever – and this confrontation, which was supposed to have happened in front of the entire team, never ever occurred.

I called his bluff on this. Even got a Player’s Union lawyer involved. When the SI writer confronted him about the facts of the story, Sheffield completely changed it, and made up a brand new lie. (Maybe he should have gone into politics?) SI recanted the part of the story about me and I got an printed apology.

Not sure how many other lies like this Gary made up, but it’s clear that problems with teammates and coaches plagued him for more than two decades. There’s no other explanation as to why a player with that kind of Hall of Fame talent and production would be traded more often than a commodity on the stock exchange. Teams wanted him, then shortly thereafter couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

Players, however, don’t vote for the Hall of Fame. Writers do. It stands to reason that he must have treated them poorly, too…and that’s the only reason he’s not going into the Hall of Fame where he belongs.

And that’s a damn shame. The system shouldn’t work like that.

Sheff’s not alone of course. Curt Schilling has done and said inflammatory, reprehensible things in recent years as a far-right media commentator. His credentials are also stellar, and as a pitcher, he very clearly belongs in Cooperstown. But he remains the only person to tweet himself out of the Hall.

As fans of the game, we want to see the best players – regardless of whether or not they’re jerks – be put in their rightful place in the Hall of Fame. It would be wonderful if every member of every Hall/Museum were an upstanding person and citizen. Life doesn’t work like that. Remember, O.J. Simpson is in, and Dale Murphy’s not.

Can wrong’s like this be made right? Hopefully not too many of Sheff’s former teammates are on any of the machinations of the Veteran’s committees that review cases of worthy players who were left out after 10 tries with the BBWAA. Gary was a Hall of Fame baseball player. There’s no question about that. He shouldn’t be left out because he wasn’t a Hall of Fame teammate.