Since the beginning of the 2004 season, I’ve liked Gary Sheffield. I didn’t like him in 2003 when George thought it best to sign him over Vlad Guerrero, but it only took a few screaming foul balls down the third base line to change my opinion of Sheff. In fact, I think I can pinpoint the moment that I moved from “grumble grumble, we should have signed Vlad,” to “man, Sheff rocks!” I was on the phone with my father, and it was right around the time he rhetorically asked, “man, does anyone hit the ball harder than Sheffield?”
And I remember thinking to myself, “no, no one hits the ball harder than this man.” It just kept getting better from there, with Sheff putting up monster numbers, even trumping those of fellow new acquisition Alex Rodriguez, on his way to runner-up in the AL MVP voting. Actually, the downward spiral of Sheff began right there, with his misunderstanding of the meaning of Most Valuable Player.