Welcome back to dugout edition and all the smoke coming to you from Atlanta, Georgia.

MLB All Star twenty twenty five men, and we get to sit down with today man.

So when I grew up a huge fan of twenty two seasons in the Major League, over twenty five hundred hits, over five hundred home runs, one of the most iconic, often copy, often copied, but never duplicated batting stances.

Someone who was very outspoken, definitely want to get into that.

Welcome to the show, Gary.

Sheffield, Thank you man, thanks for having appreciate itiate you.

Let's just get right to it.

Your batting stance.

Where did that very unique, very successful for you.

Where did your batting stance come from?

Well, you know when we was coming up.

You know now the kids get to use wood bats at a young age.

We didn't do that growing up.

So we had aluminum bat in our hand.

And the first day I stepped on a pro field, I picked up a wood bat for the first time, and I was losing home runs.

I was so quick on the ball inside, I was hitting balls foul and it was home runs and rookie ball, and I was good and frustrated, and so I got him BP One day, I just started messing with back.

You know, you put some stick on on it and start moving it.

I said, man, that felt natural, And you know I used to always hold a back like that, like Julio Franco.

But then I started moving moving it a little bit, and then I said, I'm gonna hit ten balls to right field.

I hit every one of them out the park.

And so that's how it started.

So what I had to do is I had to create that to slow my bat.

So you picked that up later then, yes, wow, yes, And it was just to slow your back down a little bit.

Yes.

And then your son has a similar, yes, similar stance of how's he doing.

I've been following him on Instagram.

How's he doing?

He's doing great.

Nor is a special kid man.

I've always said that about him.

He's never gotten in trouble.

He's one of them kids.

They loved the game so much.

And he works at the craft.

You know, he's at Florida State.

Now right now, he's in summer ball and the mallards down.

And you'll be a sophomore sophomore, yeah, yeah, going to the sophomore year.

Yeah, I've been following him from Afar.

We talk about Alan Iverson when it comes to basketball context, about kind of his impact on and off the court, and his style and the way he moved and kind of just his aura.

You had a similar to me impact when it comes to chains and golds and kind of just being authentically being you.

One thing about the NBA is after a while they eventually embraced und necessarily.

Did you feel like they embraced your style and what you were about when you came with it.

Oh?

Yeah, you know, the people got to understand where it comes from.

You know.

Me and John SMOs was on the flight last night and it was on a red eye, and we talked the whole night about just that because he knows me very well with teammates and it's all about, you know, letting people be themselves.

And I got it from my uncle was Michael Jordan at the time, doctor k on the building in New York City, and I saw how the pressure of being perfect for the world.

And he was speaking based on what Jay Horley or the PR department told him to say this, say it this way, keep.

Your image this way.

But remember I'm that four year kid behind him, that's look that looks up to him.

That's my mom's little brother.

And so what I saw it, you know, when I saw what it did to.

Him, I didn't want that lifestyle.

I didn't want to be that famous.

I didn't want to be a person that's controlled by PR department because that made him unhappy.

And I said, I'm not going to be that guy.

There's a certain I grew up playing baseball, and I feel like there's a certain stigma that that baseball coming up as a particularly white sport.

Do you think that has hurt the game of baseball today.

We've talked to Barry about this, we talked to Mookie about this, just the lack of black representation in the game and to me, MLB's inability to embrace black players.

What is your thoughts on that.

Well, let's just go back to the beginning.

When you talk about Japan, you talk about Dominic and you talk about Puerto Rico, you can talk about any country.

You have to pay a posting fee to even entertain talking to you that players.

When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, where was the posting fee?

So now there's no more Negro League.

So now let's start going back to cha.

Like, man, that's making me think was that done on purpose?

See?

Now what we have to go back to?

Right?

You See?

So that's the problem with this whole thing.

If we had something to go back to, then it wouldn't be so stressful trying to get into something.

And that's where we find ourselves now.

So why did Because I mean, I grew up watching you.

I'm forty five, but I grew up watching you and when I was coming up, seeing all you guys out there made me want to play it.

And I think as I've gotten older and I have younger sons, now you just don't see you see some darker skin, but they're not American players.

Why do you feel like there is just a complete loss in the black American baseball player.

The main point.

It's a lot of points to it.

But I think a lot of a lot of things that's happening to these kids with these black organizations and travel ball they plucking them.

See now, we played, we played together, we stayed together, one community, and we was one team that nobody can be in the state of Florida till they changed the rules for us.

And so when you're talking about having a kid over here that can play well, that the best team in the travel ball they would go pluck him away from his original team, that kids he grew up with and played with.

So he understands to play the game a certain way with his group of boys.

But when he goes to this travel ball team, this elite team, they're playing a bunch of individual play, so they're really not getting better or developing interesting.

Doc one of the greatest pitchers in Major league history?

What role did he play in your upbringing?

Woof that kind of that kind of gets to me a little bit, you know when I think about that.

You know, Doc was everything to me.

He was like my big brother.

That's my mom's little brother.

So it's like my mom moved me away from the hood, and then all of a sudden I was dominating where I was playing at in you know, the west of Tampa, and all of a sudden they discovered a gift.

And my granddad said, if this gift is real, then when you come back and come back to the hood.

So they brought me back to the hood because all my friends was white.

To be honest with you, it was all white.

I used to jump ramps motorcycle, do all the whole thing.

That's what I used.

I saw what I grew up doing.

But then they found that, they found this gifting that I had.

And I was the only person that can catch my uncle.

And so we used to go from neighborhood to neighborhood.

And he would pitch and I have to catch and just think about it.

We didn't even wear a mask, and he said, don't worry about Ain't nobody gonna touch it anyway.

And I remember, we're going from neighborhood to neighborhood.

If I miss the ball, that ball going down the road, and that would piss my uncle.

And so he was that person.

That would make me get up every day.

And train with him.

And he used to beat me down out there.

And I'm talking about beating me down.

What's the age gap?

Four years?

Okay?

And so if I if I didn't catch the ball, or I didn't hit the ball the way he wanted, he's on me.

He's beating me up now, him and my mom fighting my granddadd throw the ball back out like go back out there and playing.

And I just took all kinds of hell from him.

You know, it was beautiful You wrote a powerful article in the Player's Tribute about running you guys particularly have with some cops in Florida.

Sharing that story.

I was going to me Winki Wright and buddy of Boxer the Boxer, Yeah.

And Steve Monroe.

He's a long drive guy.

I was driving.

I was driving my Rose Roys at the time, and Winky was sitting in the passing sheet and Steve was in the back.

And we're proceeding down seventy five going to Miami from Tampa and I get around Fort Myers area and we started.

Noticing like a lot of cops you know, come around, you know, just out of know where.

They have passed me then to ride behind me, stuck with you.

I wasn't even worried about it.

I was smoking a cigarette and I'm driving my cars and smoking a cigarette.

So then the cop pulled it next to me, and I.

Waved at him, and I guess that must have pissed him off for something, so he kind of fell back, and then they kind of got out my visual.

Then he came rushing behind me and I.

Pulled over and I'm spoke with my cigar and not doing anything, and basically they had dogs.

They had everything, and they dumped all that stuff.

They asked me, first, can they checked my car?

I said no, I said, but you're gonna do it anyway, right, So they said basically yes.

So now they're checking my car on the side of the freeway.

They throwing all that stuff on the side of the freeway.

So I'm filming him.

So now he's getting pissed.

So he charges me and he grabs my arm.

He grabs my arm and I did and I locked it and I said, you better let go my arm like that.

You have no reason to be putting your hands on me, and so he kind of like couldn't force me down.

That's when he stopped.

And then he looked at the other cop and goes.

Did you find anything?

And they go no, And then he joked me I was free to go.

That's just like that.

Ooh man, that was probably like right after I retired the game.

Yeah, right out the game.

Yeah, fresh out the game, just trying to relax, go play some golf.

I'm retired now and this happens.

Yeah.

It's no secret that you had experiences, you know, had some trouble off the field.

What is that?

What did he teach you just about.

Not only life in the game of baseball, but just life and being able to take pictures as they come, so to speak.

Well, you know, I was the greatest learner because I was the only child, so I'm observer by nature and all that.

My whole life was about Doc making sure he get what he'd want.

You know.

He was like my brother.

Anything I wanted he would he would provide it.

But I never asked him for anything.

But one thing that I learned that stood out more than anything else.

It's like you can see people fall and make mistakes.

You can either try it and fail at it, or you may succeed and get out of it.

But i'd like to I would rather look at somebody and see how it makes you look.

And that's my learning experience.

I don't have to dabble in it to be proved.

You know what I'm saying, Like you fucked up.

Okay, I'm gonna stay away.

From that that part, and so everything that he did, he taught me what not to do.

It's important sometimes.

Seventeen years old, the sixth overall pick by the Brewers, Did you play any any other sports outside of baseball?

Coming up?

Okay, Yeah, I was going to the University of Miami with Marus Crumb and I was supposed to replace Melvin Bradt at running back.

So I go to University of Miami when I got drafted.

As funny you brought that up.

When I got drafted, I thought I was one on one That's what I should have been.

And I would have played on the same team as Barry Bonds with Pittsburgh if that would have happened.

So now here I am six pick.

That's automatically one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

That's what you get and back then, so they ain't want to pay me that, So I said, I go to college.

Then I go to Miami.

So I get on campus.

Jimmy Johnson was football coach and Fraser was the baseball coach, and Fraser didn't want me playing football, so I was like, man, I'm gifted in both right, So he was like, okay, let's go and check out the practice.

They had sixteen fights.

University of Miami had sixteen fights on the field and this is practice.

Who were some of the dudes that was playing football at the time when he was in college.

Lonzo Highsmith YEPK, I mean, like when you're talking about Michael Blade, Bernie Blade, Bennie Blair.

You know, we're talking about these kind of guys.

And so I I'm the running back and now I'm sitting a linebacker.

Run down the running.

Back, and all of a sudden, I just saw his cheeks, your touch and drove him in the ground.

I said, I'm going on to play baseball, buddy.

I wouldn't make it the sad.

Hey, the U is different.

I could only imagine what you was seeing.

Man, So seventeen years old, drafted by the Bruis, you get called up at nineteen, you get a chance to play with school legends.

Like Robin Young and Paul Malader.

What was your.

Experience like, first of all being so young and then just kind of learning the ropes of the game.

Well, you know, it was different.

Now when younger kids come up in the league, they don't have to deal with the hazing, They don't have to deal with a lot of things that we had to deal with.

We had a bunch of veteran players didn't gravitate to young players, so I had to come in and prove myself.

So I did that in spring training.

I wind up win the Triple Crown two years in a row in the big league camp and they wind up sending me all the way back to Double A.

Then the next year I did it again, they sent me back.

I was like, what do I have to do?

Right?

But you know, Robert Young was like phenomenal man.

He was one of the best teammates I ever played with, veteran leadership, and he leaves by example and if you need, you know, talk to somebody, he was always there.

And so that experience was a culture for me, to be honest with you.

And being from Tampa, you know, going to Milwaukee, I gravitated to the city.

The city gravitated to me.

You know, despite what you may hear, you know, I had a great relationship with the people in Milwaukee.

I love the city.

Talk to us a little bit about hazing, because there's you know, sometimes you're a high enough pick where the hazing is below you.

Were you a part of the hazing or did you see some of the younger guys get haze?

And what was baseball hazing like, because I'm sure the basketball.

Well I got it the most digit.

Yeah, And so after a while I go along with it.

But then at some point now it's going and if you don't stop on making stock.

So that's basically what it happened.

You know.

It's like, I don't play that way in a dress type stuff.

You know.

Like what got me is that I had a suit and I come into my locker and one of my legs cut off, and now you know, we ain't in no real money.

I kind of let that one go.

Then the next time, you know, I got a dress in my locker that they.

Wanted me to wear.

And I'm not gonna wear no dress, you know, but I wore the dress because of the older guys, the pressure they put on you.

What is this the timeframe?

Me?

The year?

What years?

Ord like, what's the timeframe of this?

This eighty nine eight nine?

Yeah.

So now it's like that bothered me mentally, and that just that kind of pissed me off more than before.

And I just always knew the game turned me into who I became because I was so young and I didn't understand media.

I didn't understand anything.

I'm a country boy from Tampa trying to find my way through all of this and then perform at the same time at the high level.

It was a lot going on for a nineteen yard I tell you.

But after a while, once I spoke out for the first time and I saw the response and I saw how people come at me.

I loved it.

Yeah, I loved that bit of it.

When did you feel like at what time did you kind of feel like that switch go off for like you could put you gonna put your foot now and they're respecting your voice in that locker room.

Yeah, well that's when I told them for four years to trade me every single day.

If you're gonna put this boy with Bill Spires in front of me, you better trade me.

And I'm gonna come in here and ask for it every day because he shouldn't even be in my conversation.

And that's what I demand my respect, So I don't.

You don't have to give it to I'll demand it.

I'll do what I have to do because I know I put in the time.

I've earned it.

Nobody in this organization have done what I've done in the minor leagues, and this is the treatment I get.

No trade me?

Ye?

What's that like though?

Because it's it's it's there's not social media these days, so this is just face to face.

This is real, man, conversation.

You can't tweak that ship?

What is that like?

And how were you able to perform through that?

It was difficult for me.

If I'm not welcome or wanted, I can't play for you.

Nobody can.

I can't do right because I you know, we got to gear.

Another gear.

We can go to it and then another gear after that.

But I'm not tapping into that.

I'm just showing up, putting my work in.

I'm not focused on what I need to be focused on.

I'm focused on the individuals more than the game.

And then everything changed for me when Pops came Day Parker and Don Baylor and they was brought there just for me, and I was like, okay, now we got something to work with.

So now I remember a reporter tried to stir some up with me, and Dave Parker was standing right next to him.

I didn't know it, he was standing right behind me.

And when it guy spoke like some ill stuff to me.

They took over the interview and that changed my whole life because now I had somebody that stood up for me, and now I can just go out and play baseball anytime they try to bring controversy to me, Dave Parker always stepped in and fight that, and I just He's like, go out and play.

I wound up leading the team in hitting.

Then they get rid of Dave.

Parker right after that, and then I started asking for a trade again.

And that's INTE ninety two.

That's when they traded me.

And I remember it like yesterday when Budd Celik called me in the office.

We just finished working out and I come in and he says, first thing he says to me, we traded you to the San Diego Padres.

I ain't even really care to hit nothing else.

I got what I wanted.

And then he said, you know whatever you need, You got anything to say, No, I don't have anything to say.

I'm gonna show you with this bat.

I'm gonna show you everything, right.

And so now I come to find out later Tony Gwyn's wife, Felicia, she was saying, how excited Tony Gwen was.

Really yes, And when Tony Gwen.

Is excited, man, that's my biggest flex in baseball of all time.

Winning a bating championship on the same team as.

Tony Gwenn talk to us about.

I mean, that's that's really when you broke out when you kind of came into your own you're able to win the batting title.

Second in MVP voting behind Barry Bonds, Fred McGriffin.

Third third.

Who was Arry Penerton?

They called me?

Was he in Atlanta at the time?

Atlanta?

They called me though and said I won.

So I flew to California.

Yes, they told you you won, Yes, and you ended up finishing third third.

Talk to me about that.

How did that happen?

You're talking about turning builder?

After that, I was like, I used to hear all the time about errors and making errors.

I had made fourteen errors that year, and I won the banning title.

I lost the home run title.

I still hit the home run in the last game, but Fred hit two and then Darren Dalton drove in six runs.

I drove in three.

That's how I lost the Triple Crown the last.

Game of the seeon last game, so I knew I won, but we came in third place.

So they tell me that I won the award.

So me and my dad would fly down and we're sitting in the lobby just waiting to walk in and give them a speech.

Next thing you know, they say, oh, been a change.

I see Barry Bonds and his dad walked by, and I said, what happened?

But they said, well, they probably gave it to him because he had more stolen maces.

So they told you the MVP you go there.

Yeah, and then the bullshit happen.

Bulls And when that happened, I tell you I kind of lost respect for the award.

Yeah, I did, because it's I know, Barry Bonds, you gotta you know, like that's like having a Michael Jordan, you got to you gotta.

Slay the giant.

Now, yeah, he's putting up phenomenal numbers, but he didn't put up the numbers I put up with the Batter Championship.

But here's the craziest thing about that year.

I want you to look up how many times that me and Tony Gwinn came to the plate, and I will tell you the top of my head, almost twelve hundred times.

Guess how many times we struck out.

That's what you need to find out.

Tony Gwin struck out seventeen times, I struck out thirty five times, combined teammates with twelve hundred plate appearances.

That'll never be done ever again.

Nobody talks about it.

Talk to me about his greatness and what he meant to you.

I mean again, one of the greatest hitters.

I mean to me, it was like when Kobe called me and recruited me to the Lakers, Like you get the guy wanting you on the team, similar to you with Tony Gwynn.

What did that mean to you and what kind of relationship did you?

Guys have freedom.

I have freedom because the first day I got there, grab it by my shirt, Come with me.

How much old it is?

It?

Tony is probably probably six years six years, yeah, six seven years called me, let's go.

When in the cage we started talking, he said, what's your philosophy and hitting?

Say, Seaball hit ball.

He said, that's what I like to hear.

Nobody's in here overthinking the game.

Seaball hit ball, attack fastball.

So now he was showing me a drill that he'll put the He was on the left side, on his right hip, and he was showing me how he can get to that ball right off his right hip, and then he put it on my head.

I couldn't do it, really, I couldn't do it.

But you have it.

Earlier in your you were too fast through this earlier.

Yes, and so I was going around it, he was going through it, and then he was showing me the technique to that.

He said, every time you hitting off the tee, I want you to visualize the picture's forehead and draw it right down the line to the tee.

And when I started doing that, my visual got tight.

Now you can't fool me.

So now I'm.

Starting to pick up these little traits and these little nuggets.

He'd given me, and like I could just go out there and just flat hit without even thinking about it.

But once I started understanding what I was doing, like he was showing me the art to it, the mastery to it, the dedication to it, Like, yeah, you just hit two home runs yesterday, but we're back to work again.

What is his work?

I think like he's probably there before anybody shows up to the park.

He shows up at one point thirty two o'clock every single day for seven o'clock game and just get his preparations all set.

He got the feel to hisself he'll go and work in the cage for and then he got the feel to itself.

And I just watched this man every day, and I said, I want to be that dedicated to my art.

And when I started working with him, the dedication started coming to me.

Now I start.

Getting more greedier, more hungry.

Didn't I didn't gravitate to lazy people.

I didn't gravitate to guys take shortcuts.

I don't want nothing to do with them.

We had nothing coming and.

Now I'm on a different level on So he's mentally unlocking the whole other side.

Of you, another side of me that I didn't know about.

And I'm telling you every day I watched this man hit.

It inspired me to be great.

And it did and that's my biggest flex you know, Bad Championship with Tony.

Gremate on your team.

Rest of peace to the great the crime Dog Fred McGriff.

Talk to me about Fred oh Man.

He was a legend back in Tampa and him and my uncle used to go at it.

And that's where I discovered Fred.

I was like that little young kid, soaking it all up watching these two battle And one thing about Fred, he didn't back down from nobody.

And we had the baddest park on the planet beam my height, little It's the baddest place on the planet.

And we had Floyd Yeoman's.

We had top guys, you know, we had a bunch of guys to get drafted, but one thing about one thing about him, it was just like second and none.

And that's why it was like when you look at the whole toutality of Doc Fred McGriff, that's when it started.

That shows kids like us we can make it too, because these guys when you see it, and that's what that's what you got to see it to believe it.

And that's what they did for us.

And they was approachable and that's.

The most important three to ninety eight Florida Marlin, did you get a chance to go back to your home state?

Yep?

You win a ring?

In ninety seven Moist and slou Edric Richaria, Kevin Brown, manager, Jim Leland.

What was it like, first and foremost to go home and then win it home?

Man?

That was a dream come true.

But at the same time, when I was having mixed motions because I didn't want to leave Tony Gwin.

I didn't want to leave him.

I thought that he I wasn't even never thinking about a Hall of Fame.

I wouldn't think about none of that stuff.

I was just thinking about just mastering this game and dominating for a long time and whatever, whatever the chips is, that's what it is.

But I cried when I got traded from San Diego.

That's when Fred McGriffin went to Atlanta and I went to the Marlins because the Warner Brothers didn't want to pay and so that was fine, but I was going home.

That's what kind of helped.

And when I got there, we was awful, a inaugural team, no superstars, but we had Benny san Diego, Benito san Diego.

We had him, but he wasn't he was older.

And basically, now I got to go back to being patient again, not knowing that you're not going to win, but how do you motivate yourself to win?

So now David and Brock he called me upstairs and like, hey, you don't winning five years.

He told you that.

He told me that, and I didn't believe him.

But I'm looking at her at the Robbers, I'm like, ain't no way we win it in five years.

But be patient.

So what he was trying to get me to do and understand is not go off.

In the media because of the frustration of losses and things like that just lead lead these guys.

And that's that's what I bought into.

Were you a natural leader?

You led by example, the leads by your voice?

How what kind of leader were you?

Basically?

I turned into the all kind of leaders all around, all around, because whould you credit that to?

I credit that to Darren Dalton?

Okay, Darren Dalton and Dave Parker, and I kind of understood leadership from a different perspective, Like it's one way to lead, like like Robert yan Quiet go by this business, you always seeing working, and then you follow.

But then you got the day Parker's in your face, you know, making your laugh.

Then when the game gets seer is boom like that.

So now you take a mixture of Darren Dalton, you know, and all these guys and mixing together.

Then you start seeing the responses that you can get from your teammate by doing it first.

See, I'm not going to ask you to do something I don't.

And once you start doing that, people start buying into you.

I like that.

Yeah, so you get a chance to win it home?

What is that like?

Man?

That was a dream come true.

My granddad was living at the time.

Doc's dad and he started it all and It took me back to that moment.

It's like when it all started, Like we all play for championship, but you know how difficult that is, and people take it for granted just because you're a great player, You're supposed to just automatically just go out there and win.

And it takes a complete team to win a championship.

That was like the icing on the cake for my career because I got that chip out the way.

Now I can just focus on playing the game the right way, leading these guys and then and you know.

If they keep the roster together, we're gonna win more.

And that's when I went to Florida.

That's when you talk about going in your bag.

I went in my bag, deep deep, because I knew we was gonna win that year.

I knew it.

That's big.

LA Dodgers didn't make the playoffs.

LA fans are a little different.

How did you stay locked in?

I mean some of the name Sean Green, hadel Nomo play with the current manager Dave Roberts.

What was your LA experience?

Like it was wonderful, you know, until it wasn't.

You know what I'm saying.

If you look at on the field, I outperformed everybody every year.

And when I when I actually I didn't even ask for the contract.

I didn't ask for that.

They offered it to me.

They were like, we want to give you a lifetime contract.

So I asked Herold Runnalds and I asked Peter Gammons, should I sign it?

It was like, if you like being there, yeah, I think it'd be a great idea.

So I go back and I had a meet at my house.

And I used to live in bel.

Air Crest right there, and really nice, yes, really nice, nice yes.

And all of a sudden they come over to my house, the ownership and everybody, and I'm not thinking nothing of it.

I'm just thinking, this is I'm performing this time.

I'm early thirties, yes, I'm probably twenty seven.

Okay, so somewhere there.

Late twenties, yeah, late twenties.

And next thing you know, you know how when you're bawling out, you just locked in, and I'm LA is growing on me.

It's a big city for a country boy, you know.

So here I am pulled up the numbers and next thing you know, they want to offer a contract and they're sitting in my house and then they say, well, what if we don't do it?

That wasn't even part of the conversation, like why why do we get to this point?

Right then everything blew up from there and I told him you're gonna have an unhappy Dodger like that, because now.

You got me thinking this same with my emotions.

You playing with my emotions.

And so I said, okay, no problem.

I went out still performed.

They said you have to go out here and you got to start playing defense better.

I said, okay, I only threw out twenty five runners, so now I'm gonna throw them out.

Now I'm doing I'm showing them I have the whole package.

They said, we'll come back to the table next year.

So now I did all of that, come in third in MVP again.

Scott Boys is my agent at the time.

Next thing, you know, they said, we're not giving you a deal, and that's when all the verbage started happening on.

Their in first okay, and then.

That's when I started letting them happen because you ain't gonna back me down.

And because now.

I had just got married ninety eight, just got married, and my wife was so scared, like because you know, just your husband and and sixty thousand people getting ready to.

Boo him on open to day.

That's tough.

So she drove me to the park and she had all Gospel of music going.

I said, I looked at it.

I said, you nervous antent.

She's like kind of I said, I said, you can't serve God and have feelac I said, you can't do that at the same time.

And that's what kind of I can see that relaxed get in the game.

Soon as I touched the field, the whole place boing me.

I love every bit of it.

Right.

They walked me.

Fly ball hit to me, they boo, I catch it.

So next that back, they walked me, next that back, they walked me games zip zip zero to zero.

They made They made one mistake.

They pitched me in the eighth inning, and when I came up, boom, dead center.

You should have saw this place erupt.

And I come back to the dugout.

Now this is right way, this is my sweet spot.

So now I'm running around the basis like I'm just thinking about the things i'thing to do.

You know.

What I'm gonna do, right, But it just something came over me.

When I got the homeplate.

I wasn't gonna I wasn't focused on them per se.

No more.

I just knew where it was coming from.

And I just did this here and I just did that.

And when I went and went in there, you know, it's a long run to the dugout.

So I run my team out there, modeled me.

They're all excited.

I sit down.

The crowd is still going crazy.

They won't stop standing.

So now.

All my teammates go out there.

I say, Nope, not doing it.

They were like, man, please go out there, Please go out there.

Everybody putting it on around man, just go get the curtain cars.

Nope, I ain't doing it.

I say, they messing with a dog.

Come on.

Now, I say, they messing with a dog.

Keep the same energy.

Come on.

And then all of a sudden, one of my teammates that I respect a lot came to me and said, Gary, just please do it for me.

And I said, you know what I do it for.

You can you share it?

And I got up, you don't have to, Hey, yeah, okay, don't do it.

Yeah he got you up, though.

Yeah he got me up because see that was a lot for me to do.

Okay, because you can't come at me and boo me, and then I'm gonna just let it go that easy.

I keep the same energy for life except for life.

Yes, And so now that got me to move And that's what I learned something by myself too.

You know, I can let stuff go because before I couldn't, Like if I got an altercation with you.

We're gonna do this every day, every time I see it, every time I see your own sight.

What are your thoughts, because obviously I think you get painted in a bad picture.

And you played in a time where.

You didn't that's you had a voice, but it wasn't it wasn't a social media era, so you just kind of had to take the bullshit that that's not true, but you.

Don't have a plan.

Like how frustrating was that for you at times?

You know, like as we get older, we speak a little better.

That's what I always say.

You know, I'm a very country you know, and I speak with country grammar.

And so when you speak and somebody that.

Don't understand your culture where you're from, they'll take what you said and write what they thought they heard.

You see what I'm saying, And now, all of a sudden you're having to explain I didn't say that.

And now social media now would have benefited me because we could clarify everything.

I could talk right to you, right, this is what I say.

This is exactly what I said.

So now here I am having to clean up what somebody say I said.

So I got I finally got to a point where I said, you know, I'm gonna stop cleaning it up.

I'm gonna own it now.

I'm I'm gonna be what you expected me to be, which that's immature as well.

And so these are all the things I'm learning along the way about myself.

Do I want to engage in this foolishness and stay on this childish stuff, or do I want to be I'm a married man now you know, act like it.

It's easier said than done, though, especially in the moment, especially at the age you were at too, because it's just like, man, you don't fuck me.

Fuck y'all right, because I'm good at what I do and you're.

On my lawn messing with me.

Right.

You know, I'm telling you in spring training, I'm gonna be the best player on the field ninety times in the time, I'm gonna be the best player on the field.

And that's just how it goes, and that's how I look at it.

And if I don't have that belief, you know, I tell my kids the same thing.

If you don't believe in yourself like that, it's not gonna happen.

It's believe in you.

Yeah, Atlanta Braves, loaded teams.

Yeah, Maddocks, Glavin, Smolts.

We just had dj right before you came in.

He said he felt that Smolts was the best out of those three.

Yep, you agree, hands down, really hands down.

And that's where the Atlanta Braids went wrong by not putting the ball in his hand and the most supporting parts of the game, like the like the the just Sidon game, the big games, the big game, because he had overpowering stuff.

Greg matters and Glavin was perfect for the long haul, the long season.

Remember Smokes, she used to go out of the bullpen and he's a start.

So he got injured more because he had to do all those things.

But for stuff.

And the person that you didn't want to see was him.

Playing with Chipper and the young Andrew Jones.

What was that like?

That?

That was awesome?

Man.

That was one of those things where I thought that we're gonna win a bunch of championships here.

But once again I get there and then all of a sudden, they said they didn't want to pay me.

Now, remember I told you I got gears I can go to.

But once you decide that you ain't gonna take care of me, well then I'm gonna just here to do what I'm supposed to do and keep it moving.

And that's what I did.

Yankees four to six jeter A.

Rod Mariano a part of an unfortunate four collapse.

First and foremost, what was it like playing for the Yankees?

And then take me to the LCS.

When I got there, I had a perception of the Yankees that this is this is easy money.

Well, look at all these guys on this team, and you add me to it, it's automatic.

And when I started seeing the politics and part of it the other side, that's when I said, Okay, I got it.

Because I'm an observer.

I'm the only child.

I noticed every and I pay attention.

And when I got there, I saw the dysfunction right away, and it came from you know, I guess A Rod had made a statement about GEDA a long time ago, and you can feel the tension.

I mean every single day you can feel it, so even to the point where they had to make them go, like to have a lunch and try to make it like they was cool.

But as teammates, we knew something was off.

And I was just like, man, we got to fix this, you know, like the relationship.

And I was thinking, why would they have a bad relationship based on what he said?

But I could see what you know, it made geta upset.

And now we're walking in that as a team and we're struggling.

And when we got a rod, they had me hitting fifth.

That ain't my natural position I should be.

I should be hitting third because I don't strike out.

And now Joe Torrey didn't talk to me for two months when I first got there because he wanted Gladimir Guerrero, which was five years younger, which I understood that, but I also told him, you ain't gonna know the difference in the numbers.

You know, you can.

I don't care how old you how old I am, but I'm.

Just telling you because that's when the reporters started attacking me, you know, in spring.

Training, because I had made a statement.

You can write down three hundred thirty and one hundred and one hundred walks.

You can write it down now.

So when I made that statement, you know, the New York media try to act some of some of the guys try to act tough, and they didn't like the fact that I told him what I was going to do and I went out and did it.

That's it is the lies, the art of hitting.

Yeah, you still feel like you get hit up fast for all to day, hundred miles an hour.

No, no, no, okay, Now, i'mna be honest with you enough see very very sid It's like riding the bike.

Verry ain't gonna hit nothing.

He ain't gonna yet nothing.

That's my dog, he called me on the way over here.

Yeah, he tad you guys appreciate No, he ain't gonna hit nothing nothing.

Yeah, can you break down he I mean, he gave us a unique breakdown of when he steps in the box, what he's looking for.

Can you give it when you're in the box.

Well, it's a technique that I came up with, you know, with Tony Gwynn and kind of like developing something bigger for me.

And it's the basically, if I if I focus on your head.

I don't I don't worry about your decept deceptive pitching style.

So if I keep my head focused on that tunnel and I draw a straight line to home plate, that's my tunnel vision, and I put you in that box, and that's what And so I could easily define if the ball is in or wait, because I'm looking right down in the middle.

But my direction of hitting is right center.

So all my alignments in place now with the different arm angles, and I focused on your forehead.

Now that strikes on the smaller for me.

And then that's what I used to hit down the tunnel.

And what happens in that as well, ninety.

Eight becomes ninety three, it slows down that way, one hundred becomes ninety five.

Yeah, it slows down.

The smartest pitch you ever faced.

Greg Maddocks, that's what out of question is a genius.

And because the thing is Greg used to play these games with you, like he tried to speed you up, to slow you down, to speed you up.

No.

See, when you understand hitting, you never letting somebody slow you down.

You stay sped up so you're not late.

Okay, now I'm gonna let certain balls get deeper, but everything else but lower half is the same.

So Greg Matters like to throw a back door like Pedro Martinez.

They'd like to throw that back door sinker to get you leaking out over the plate so they can bust you inside.

I never took the bait on that.

I was like one of those guys where I'm not even worried about it inside.

I dare you to come in here.

You see, I want to react to what you're doing inside here, opposed to me anticipating that, because if I anticipate in I'm going to like, I told you, I'm too quick, and I've hit balls foul.

I don't even know how I do that, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah, when I when I hit it, I'm like, and then i look over the dugout and out the stadium, I'm like, I don't even know how I did that.

So that's why I have to always let the ball back up and get deep on me, because I have to trust my hands and everything works and operate after that.

I love it.

Take a look at this clip.

Pedro says, all right, I'm in the pitch right away, and Chefel's like, well, time time time timetime.

I wasn't fully ready Pedro knew that, or he's just messing with Pedro.

They're messing with each other.

So pitch hasn't been thrown.

Sheffield wags his batwags his batwags his bat.

First pitch, it's gonna be a breaking ball on the outside, doesn't get the strike, brings a little in, gets the strike, goes back outside, doesn't get the chase, and then he's gonna throw another one outside hot shot.

Foul ball almost hits Luis Soho who skips over it.

It's crowd over there.

He has a big laugh, chain smiling, having fun.

O little shimmy, and then we go back where Sheffield wags the best timetimetime.

A late time call in Pedro's delivery again and Pedro's like, fuck that, this is a first inning.

He says, screw that curveball, no whatever that is, No outside fastball, no change up, no inside fastball, yes please, and then rears back and it hits him.

Oh yeah, he says, don't be doing that to me, Not to me.

You don't want to do that.

Ah, I don't care if I was messing with you.

I'm telling you you don't want to do that to me.

I'm telling you, dog, you don't want to do that to me.

Even though I was messing with you, you don't want to do it to me.

Here's both of them what Pedro was doing while Sheffield was talking to him, just blankly staring at him.

I don't give a fucked.

I'm tiny, but on his mound, I am huge.

He never hit him again.

So that's something, you know.

When I see that, I remember it so well.

Bernie Williams put me up to that, and Bernie Williams said, you want to piss Pedro off?

I said, I would love to piss him off, because you know, at the time I didn't like him as a player, but as I got to know him, you know he's a great guy.

But when we're competing, he's one of them guys you love to be on his team, but you hate him on the other side.

And so that's how Erro played.

We didn't fragnize a lot.

And so Bernie said, if you want to piss him off, just step out the box.

I say, I'm as a matter of fact, I'm gonna do it two or three times.

That's what I had in my.

Head, right, So I said, now, if he hit me, I'm gonna go up there and I'm gonna drop him on his shoulder.

And that's what I was thinking.

And I stepped out the box the first time.

I knew it pissed him off.

And I knew when he threw that first curveball, I said, he gonna hit me.

I said, now I'm gonna do it again, stepped out again.

He throws another curveball, and it was already set up to where Ryan.

Anybody knows about baseball, and when somebody trying to hit you, they know they're gonna throw a breaking ball away first, and then they do it again to set you up the dull drilliard like he did.

But when I was going to first base, I was saying to myself, Pedro knows how I out here on the field.

If he make any gesture his lips moved, or his eyes move or anything, move and say anything, I'm coming like a raging ball.

And as you notice, he just stared, because you see he's everybody interviewed this before, because I tell him, you don't get to hit me for free.

And if I look at you and stare at you, if you even indicate.

Something I'm coming on.

And that's how this when I charge it when I don't.

How many times did you charge in your care?

A lot, A lot, a lot?

Yeah, okay, if you want to be bad, okay, well.

I'm see how bad.

Let's see.

Let's see how And you.

Know, I'm not trying to be a tough guy.

I just play the game the way I play the game, and I don't anything get in the ways.

Just problem.

And so when he did that, as you can see, he didn't.

He didn't.

He didn't want nothing, he didn't want no problems.

The ped era you played through that Thoughts on just the era and where baseball was at that time.

Well, everybody say maguire and Sammy Sosi say the game.

I don't think they say the game, you know.

I mean, that was a wonderful thing that they did, But the game was going to be fine.

Baseball is always going to be fine.

It's like you go through ups and downs, do strikes and things like that, and then you have people pissed off at the game, but the game will eventually come back.

But that was a great segment.

Way to say they saved the game, which if that's what you want to call it.

But during that era, you had to be a dog.

You had to be a dog every day.

And this is why Jim Leland was so important to me, because he's the first manager that ever acts for something from me for the team.

I need you to be the best player against their best player everybody we play.

And I said, wow, I ain't never had nobody ask me that, But.

That was a good challenge for me.

Now it had my focus.

Now I got my undivided attention.

So if I see a Barry Bonds coming town, I got to.

Be better than Barry play.

And I know most people say, how is that possible?

Well, go look at our series and matchups, Go look at them here at the head.

I love that.

You know, we're definitely gonna look a look at.

All the great matchup and they pictured their aces and whatever.

Hey, that's all I'm saying.

Today's game.

You feel this water down?

What do you feel is missing?

Well, I say.

The game has gone in a different direction because of sabermetrics.

I talked to John Smokes for a long time and he educated me on a lot of things that I knew but I didn't know.

Now he has the insight of it because he's doing the interviews with the players.

It's not the player's fault.

They're acts to swing at a certain count and get off their A swing because their computer says that ninety eight percent of the time, this guy is going to do this doing this count, and all of a sudden, if they do something different, you look like a fool and you swinging and missing.

So they're telling these kids win the.

Swing to get their A swing off, and that's why the strikes up because they're not thinking for themselves.

If I want to make an adjustment and just try to make contact, nobody's doing that.

That's why pictures don't have problems with guys being on second and third less than on one out or two outs, and they get out of it.

They get out of it unscathed.

Strikeout, strikeouts st.

How many analytics are in the game instead of just the old school.

I don't think I would use the word too many.

I think that you need to incorporate old balance and balance it.

You know, when you look at baseball now, the veteran player that should be making five to ten million dollars is still sticking around and performing and.

Teaching these young guys certain things.

He's gone.

So now you see the hitting has come way down and pitching is up.

But with the with the up, with the picture, a lot of arm problems, it's not sustainable.

So I just think they need to take sab of machic balance old school with it to create magic.

I mean, I feel like that's in the NBA, same thing that analytics have.

You lay up to threes mid range.

So who wants to watch that?

I mean, I don't know if this young generation like that style or not, but I know for me, I want to see something going on.

I want to see a triple.

I want to see a guy bunt.

And that's why I.

Say, how to neutralize this velocity, You got to bring back old school way of playing the game.

And I guarantee you they'll neutralize that blossom because if you bring in athletes and speed guy's bunt, make that guy that's throwing a hundred have to feel this position, they can't do it.

So now when you keep that kind of pressure on them, I'll wipe this the way they play now, I'll put a team together and wipe the floor with it.

Yeah, five hundred home runs over twenty five hundred hits, not in the Hall of Fame.

Right, how much does that hurt?

Does a body?

At this point you say fuck it?

It would like where's your mind that your numbers meet, your numbers meet the criteria, but you're not there.

Well, I understand why they did this, because they've been trying to get me for twenty two years and they couldn't.

And this is why I always tell people about me.

If you dislike so much what I used to say and the things I used to do, then how did that make it twenty two years?

Because see, I'm not what you're saying.

I am be See you want the public to believe that, but you ain't never heard one teammate ever say anything about me as a player and as a person because one thing about me I told you about different kind of leadership roles you have to learn and that over time you get better at it.

Like the most racist player that's on my team.

Me and him will get along perfect because I forced him to talk.

I forced him to be real with me, because I'm gonna be real with you.

So I tell you the things that you can't do around me.

You can't use racist jokes, you can't like certain things.

I let you know up front, don't cross that line with me because you problem.

It's gonna be a problem.

So now we become best friends.

Now the locker room is better from that, and that's called leadership, and.

That's what that's what it's all about.

And so like our generation and our era, all of this stuff was predicated on this.

Everybody talk about this era and try to use it as a steroid error, but it wasn't.

Everybody's doing it.

It's so much more than that.

It's so much more than that.

And so that's why I say, when it comes to me in the Hall of Fame and all that, I know where it's predicated on, and I know it's all about.

This is their shot to get back at me.

Barry Bonds, you guys used to train together.

What was that like?

What'd you learn from him?

Well?

I had just got married, like I told you, and I made la with my home for the off season, so I didn't have no training partners in my routine.

Got compromised because I'm not going back to Florida.

So Scott Boyd suggested I go work out with Barry Bonds up north, up in San Francisco.

And actually Barry wasn't even there when I got there because he was in Aspen skiing.

And when I first got there, I discovered I had to have surgery on both of my legs.

I didn't know it was wrong.

I had cysts in the back of my legs and doctor team behind your knees, behind my knees, and doctor tem he performed the surgery.

So when Barry showed up, I was in two casts, like in both legs and so but they was They said in about three four weeks, I'll be fine, and so I go in the gym.

But when I got the cast off, I asked Barry, I said, how do you come back from knee injuries?

Because I know you had knee injuries.

He said, you got to start training right away.

So I was like, okay.

So I went in the gym and I did some squats and I was doing squats and then all of a.

Sudden, my stitches burst over.

Yeah, it burst open, and then all of a sudden that the trainers kept putting this this cream stuff on it, and they just kept rubbing down and then they taped it up.

And I went to the doctor and I went and got stitches foot back in and then after that, all of a sudden, I start training with Barry.

And then Barry started, you know, like leaving me in the morning, you know, because this is all part of his game of making me, you know, get up early and mentally tough and all this type of stuff.

So I was going through that and then I was like, you know, I'm not with this, and I left.

And next thing, you know, I get a call that I got to testify, you know, against Barry Bonds, and I'm like, whoa, So now I lowy up.

I go down there and testify.

I was on the stand for probably three questions.

That was it.

And so now all of this stuff comes back full circle.

And when I look at this stuff, that decision of going to work out with him may have cost me more than I thought.

What was the creamers putting on you?

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, but but the thing is that when you're in a gym, what could they possibly be.

Putting on you?

You know, So they put it on there.

I went back to the doctor, got stitches, and then the rest is history.

Now they got testing in place, So now everybody want to see what you made of Now nothing change my number is still the same.

Still staying.

You know, Sauff quick hitters.

First thing to come to mind, best singular pitch you saw is a batter who's cutter, splitter, curve fastball.

Darryl Kyle, Remember him, I do remember him.

This guy had one of the tightest breaking balls you want to see.

And I mean it's like a break three times.

You know, it goes up, then it go at your head, then it goes left, And that's how I felt.

But so that guy, I used to have to try to set him up to just to throw that pitch because I knew he was but I just ain't no win when.

It was coming.

So that's the only player out of all the guys I faced that I sit on breaking ball.

Craziest clubhouse story you could share?

DJ told us one about women fighting in the family room.

Someone's girl, And you got any clubhouse stories you could share with us?

Well, I don't know.

Here he'll be mad I shared this, But I think a couple of guys that shared this story about Greg Maddocks and Greg Maddens has this thing where he likes get in the shower and then all of a sudden, you know how guys be washing their hair and he just keep pointing, like, why.

Is not coming out because your eyes closed?

But he used to take it farther.

He liked the pee on your feet.

Yeah, And I gave him a look that if you do it, I'm gonna kid.

I don't play like that.

So he used to do those type of things.

And you know, like some guys will go take a number two and about this long and they're leaving in the toilet.

It's all kinds of crazy.

We got some food for real, all kinds of stuff.

Worst ballpark you ever played him?

Worst ball park County Stadium, Milwaukee, Milwaukee.

I was playing shortstop there and it was so cold, and we were playing Toronto Blue Jays and uh, I think it was Jesse Barfield was hitting and I look up and I could see cars passing by the freeway.

So now, because I'm distracted because it's so cold, and then it's like little flakes on the ground like snow here, the ball to me as short and all I did is watch the line.

Ball just came to me.

And when I tell you one of the worst stadiums, this is Milwaukee, and it's outdoors and it's freezing and then underneath piss confessed cages and we're talking about big leads and that's what we that's what I started up in.

So yeah, so thankfully it only got better.

Yeah, they got a new one now, so it's a lot better.

Yeah, Ben's clearing brawl.

Who are three former teammates you're taking with you?

Rob dere I ain't heard that, Rob, Glenn Braggs Yeah, and Don Baylor Baylor, those three right there, undefeated, Those three undefeated right there?

Current best player in Major League Baseball?

You feel normally I will shave Mike Trout, but he's having a rough time of late.

The best player now is Otani.

Did you ever think you would see someone like him in the major leagues?

You know what's so funny about that?

I think I thought I was gonna see it a long time ago, because.

That's what we did everyone, and it just that once you got there specialized, then they started making you do this or that.

Now, tell your story.

When I got drafted on my Bubblecombe card, it says pitcher shortstop, So I went to the bullpen and the hell of the montana when the game getting ready to start, and I had a pitching toe on them and my uncle's pitching glove, and they was yelling down there because I just flew in.

Remember I told you I got the minor leagues late.

So I get down there, I'm thinking I'm doing both.

So I said, well, since I'm a little late, I probably just pitched today.

But they was like, you're not a pitcher, You're a shortstop.

And I said, oh, because I didn't.

I didn't run bases.

I ain't do none of that in high school because I either hit a home run or they'll walk me in.

They'll just pitch running for me because I had to pitch.

So it was like I didn't know what I was.

But when you look at Otani, what separates him, I think from anybody that would ever tried to do this is the velocity he throws.

He throws un and he's that good as with the bat.

So now I knew I couldn't match the bat.

But we're talking about the pitching.

That's different.

Level.

S wanted bat in your career.

It's a lot of them that stood out your favorite and bat.

Oh wow.

The one that stood out was.

Us getting to the World Series with playing the San Francisco Giants, and it goes back to the goat when you're talking about Bear Bonds out there as the goat.

You got to get past this man.

And he's having a decent series.

And I come up in the eighth in and I think and they had a closer in Hernandez, And if I don't come through here, we're gonna lose because Barry's Barry's gonna make sure.

That, you know.

And I hit this ball up a tank to put us ahead by two.

Now Barry is coming up, so we don't we're not fearing him as much because we are two run league and we win that game.

That was like my highlight of my career because it's like we stopped the Goat from getting to the World Series.

And that was the only mission, you know, So Barry's your goat.

He used to go one guess you would like to see on all the smoke.

One guess, baseball player, it's wide open.

You're our fifth.

Let me see has jazz chils have been on here?

That's a good one.

Yeah, Yeah, that's that's my son.

That's what'su.

You might need to put that call in for us in OG.

Yeah, for sure.

Well, Gary man, we appreciate you again, huge fan of you growing.

Up and to honored to be able to say down and talk to you today.

Man.

Continued success and and luck and that's the luck to your son.

Appreciate you.

Yeah, that's a rap, Gary Sheffield And you can catch this on all the Smoke Progressions YouTube and the Draft Kings Network.

We'll see y'all next week.

H m hm hmm