Post II

I have two unrelated posts today before the weekend. The first is inquisitive in nature and totally benign. The second is an angry rant at a guy on the Yankees that just can't keep his mouth shut.

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I just read this piece on Gary Sheffield. This guy is driving me crazy this year. He's a great player and a feisty guy which isn't too bad since the Yanks lack in the feisty department. I just wish he'd shut his goddamn trap every now and again. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if he wore a muzzle sometimes.

First, Gary is not the leader of this team. That's Jeter's department. If you don't respect your team captain then you aren't a team player. Jeter's been in Pinstripes for 10 seasons and is flat-out the only person that should speak on behalf of the team, both on and off the field. If Gary Sheffield can't deal with that, he can take his XXXL-sized attitude to a place like Boston where there is no respect for teammates and public bitching is the norm.

Second, there is absolutely no reason for Sheffield to say that the media promotes Jeter and ARod over him. He's hardly an unknown player and, I'd have to say, the media has treated Sheffield with more respect than he's deserved. Here in NY, I can't think of a single time when the media wrote something negative about Sheffield. Considering he "unknowingly" used steroids and barely received 1/100th of the negative press and reaction that Giambi, Bonds or others have received, I can't understand why Sheffield feels so marginalized.

Third, he's complaining about the lack of camraderie on the Yanks because "no one sits at their lockers" but then says that he "wouldn't grow too close" with his teammates because he doesn't trust anyone besides his "mother, wife and a few friends." What are you complaining about then, Gary? If you don't trust anyone and wouldn't become close with these guys, why do you even care that you sit alone in the clubhouse? Furthermore, if a lack of camraderie bothers you so much, how the hell is bitching to the press about your apparent dislike of your teammates going to help anything?

Finally, as always, he blames the media for everything that is going wrong in his world. On top of that, he makes it a race thing. Why on earth does race have to come into this? How has any coverage of Sheffield or the Yanks been skewed, in his perception, by the color of his skin? All of the Yankees that get good coverage are people of color, incidentally. Do Jeter, ARod, Posada, Rivera, Williams, Gordon and Cano feel like being black or Latino has hurt them in baseball? I seriously doubt it. I can't think of any Yankee in recent memory other than David Wells that has ever accused the media of playing games and Boomer's a fatso WHITE guy.

Flat out, Gary Sheffield is the same piece of shit that Barry Bonds is. As much as I hate Barry Bonds, I can honestly say that Bonds only receives a lot of crap because it's fun to give it to him. Sheffield hasn't gotten a taste of his own medicine. Sheffield has no idea what it's really like to be skewered in the press. I'd be willing to poison the 2005 season just to see an all-out hate-fest erupt here in NYC. I want the NY Post, Daily News and New York Newsday to give him the Patrick Ewing/Ed Whitson/Ray Handley treatment. Gary Sheffield wants to talk shit about a team that pays him a good salary to hit in the middle of the best lineup he's ever hit in? He wants to complain about how bad life in Yankee Pinstripes is? That's his right. And it's our right as New Yorkers to boo the shit out of him. Or, better yet, let's give him standing ovations every time out. I doubt a professional loser like him would know what to do with positivity.

There's a reason this arrogant, ungrateful, steroid-using, race-baiting piece of shit has been on six teams and can't find a home. Gary, go to hell.