Baseball Musings: Sheffield Complains

July 14, 2007

Sheffield Complains

Gary Sheffield feels Joe Torre treats black and white players differently. However, Sheffield lacks a bit of credibility:

Sheffield said Friday night before the Tigers' game in Seattle that he felt disrespected when he arrived in New York, claiming Torre said the Yankees should have instead acquired Vladimir Guerrero.
"When you're hearing that from your manager when you are out there busting your butt for him, that's disrespectful," Sheffield said. "But no one came to my defense to say it was disrespectful."

Last time I looked, Vlad was still black. (Please don't give me the Vlad is Hispanic nonsense. Black/white racism has nothing to do with your country of origin.) And then there's this:

Kremer pointed out to Sheffield that the Yankees' most prominent player is black. Sheffield responded, "Who?" Told Derek Jeter, Sheffield said, "Derek Jeter is black and white."
Jeter's father is African-American and his mother is white. Sheffield said of that, "There's really no significance. You just ain't all the way black."

Both Torre and Jeter refused comment.

Posted by David Pinto at 08:43 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)

Comments

racism goes both ways.

Posted by: Tim at July 14, 2007 10:11 AM

What a maroon. There's nothing in this world that Sheffield can't pin racism on.

This is a bit like George Foster claiming that racism was the motivation behind him being cut by the '86 Mets. Meanwhile, the guys who replaced him in the lineup were Mookie Wilson and Kevin Mitchell.

Posted by: paul zummo at July 14, 2007 10:41 AM

Actually, country of origin does have something to do with racism, especially in the United States. I've noticed that the NBA is oft represented as the league of thugs. It's connection with hip-hop is often disparaged in the press. In my view, it's a racist reaction which dovetails with our country's particular history. Baseball does not elicit the same racist reaction despite having a large percentage of black (hispanic and non-hispanic) players. These players are not seen as thugs. Why is that?

Posted by: Nick at July 14, 2007 12:07 PM

I don't agree with your assumption in concluding that the Vlad comment undermines Sheffield's credibility. He did not say that the cause of Torre's alleged preference was.
Why can't he believe that Torre has more than one flaw?

Sheffield isn't fond on Bonds either, but doesn't attribute Bonds' disrespect of him to race, does he?

And the article claims that Sheffield specifically said that he does not believe that Torre is a racist, only that he treated black and white players differently. Now he feels disrespected by that different treatment, but Sheffield evidently does not feel that Torre's alleged lack of respect for cultural differences rises to the level of deserving that label.

Posted by: JoeArthur at July 14, 2007 12:54 PM

going on and on about a person acting like a racist and then qualifying it with "but they're not" is just cowardice. it's a way of getting out of what you're saying. maybe if sheffield would have come up with another reason why torre (supposedly) separates players based on race, his conditional language would mean something. but because he refused to do that in the interview, how else should it have been heard?

"torre runs red lights and speeds and runs into children on the sidewalk whenever he drives. he's not a bad driver though - i'd never call someone a bad driver." it's bs.

Posted by: Tim at July 14, 2007 01:17 PM

Tim,

don't agree at all. Racism is a word with different connotations to different people - some people reserve it to those who hold an overt 'biological' theory of difference or inferiority. At the other extreme are people who use the word for any direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional, difference in treatment which can be associated with race. My observation is that people routinely talk past each other when using the term racism, because they don't actually mean the same thing by the word.

I have no opinion on Torre vs Sheffield, but I do think that there is nothing incoherent (or cowardly) about Sheffield's remarks to date.

Posted by: JoeArthur at July 14, 2007 03:16 PM

Gary sure got out spoken and brave when the ink dried on his last quaranteed contract. Didn't hear a peep when he was in NY.

Posted by: Mark at July 14, 2007 06:34 PM

How dare Shefield say somthing derogitory about the Yankees, next he'll be knocking ESPN. Nor is it a pleasure to hear the racist comments of some of these these thoughtless pigmy brained racists who have not a clue what it's like to be a black man in this country.

Posted by: Ed Kidney at July 14, 2007 06:35 PM

Nick,

I once asked Bill James a similar question, why during the late 60s you didn't see any protests in baseball similar to the 1968 Olympics, and you didn't see baseball players joining the Nation of Islam, as you saw in basketball, football and boxing. James told me that baseball is a more conservative sport than the others, both in the people who play and run the game. The biggest protest of that era was Curt Flood's, and that was as much an economic protest as a social protest.

Posted by: David Pinto at July 14, 2007 06:35 PM

that may be true, David, and perhaps my example doesn't come close to proving my point, but I still maintain that racism can and sometimes is understood in a very local sense. Race is a social construction in the first place. You need only to look at our country's history with immigration to see that racism is related to cultural and social moments (eg. the Irish were viewed by some as racially inferior when they first arrived here). I think there are racists in this country or rather people who hold racist views and feelings that are racist toward African-Americans but not racist toward Carribean Americans.

Posted by: Nick at July 15, 2007 12:15 AM

oops! I meant African-Carribeans.

Posted by: Nick at July 15, 2007 09:33 AM

"I think there are racists in this country or rather people who hold racist views and feelings that are racist toward African-Americans but not racist toward Carribean Americans."
I agree, Nick. And most have one thing in common, they are Black like Shef. In Gary's book Jeter, Vlad, Bernie... are not Black.

Posted by: abe at July 15, 2007 08:49 PM

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