Sheffield Can’t Hide From Lore : It’s All Around Him in His Quest for the Triple Crown

SAN DIEGO —  Gary Sheffield sits in his living room, surrounded by barren walls, two suitcases, a storage trunk, a crumbled bag of potato chips and a baseball cap.

His two daughters and girlfriend have left town. The moving van has started hauling his two Mercedes-Benzes to Florida. The rental furniture will be retrieved Monday.

He’s alone now, secluded in his home with the lights dimmed, a cellular phone his only means of communication with the outside world.

The cameras aren’t flashing in his face here. Reporters aren’t talking about Ducky Medwick or any other players in baseball history he’s never heard of. Teammates aren’t badgering him for autographs, trying to get last-minute souvenirs of their piece of history.

Sheffield lies back and tries to relax. He came to the San Diego Padre organization six months ago with the label of being a troubled malcontent from Milwaukee. He leaves town Monday as San Diego’s greatest attraction since Sea World.

“I think I’ve shocked everyone,” Sheffield said. “No one thought I could do this. No one dreamed I could put together a year like this.

“Really, I don’t know what more they could want.”

Sheffield abruptly stops and closes his eyes, and a tormented look stretches across his face.

Speaking almost in a whisper, Sheffield says: “Well, I do know there’s one more thing they want. It’s all anybody’s talking about. Man, this triple crown stuff has got people crazy.”

It wasn’t until August that Sheffield was even apprised of the definition of a triple crown. He thought Ducky Medwick, the National League’s last triple crown winner in 1937, was a cartoon character.

How was he supposed to know? Gary Antoine Sheffield is only 23 years old. The only baseball history he had ever concerned himself with was uncle Dwight’s trading cards--the man known to the rest of the world as New York Mets pitcher Doc Gooden.

You mean you never thumbed through the baseball encyclopedia?

“What’s that?”

The book that compiles the statistics of every player in baseball history.

“You’re kidding, I never knew they had such a thing.”

Now, after a grueling six weeks in which he has been hounded by reporters, dazed by TV lights and gotten hoarse from interviews, Sheffield is beginning to understand the significance of his pursuit.

Sheffield, the Padres’ All-Star third baseman, is still in the hunt for baseball infamy with one week remaining in the season. He has a league-leading .330 batting average, 33 homers and 99 RBIs. He trails teammate Fred McGriff, league leader in home runs, by one, and Darren Daulton of Philadelphia, league leader in RBIs, by seven.

There have been only 19 players to finish in the top three in every triple-crown category. New York Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly is the only active player who has won the batting title and RBI title, and he did it in different years.

Sheffield tries to shrug off the stress that encompasses such an achievement, but it’s impossible to escape. If reporters aren’t reminding him, it’s teammates. If not teammates, it’s friends. If not friends, family.

While on the road, he has instructed hotel operators to block all calls. The distractions have been unbearable at times, and in Cincinnati last weekend he even resorted to switching rooms with a friend so no one could find him.

“You try not to put too much stress on your mind,” Sheffield said, “but you can’t help it. I lay in bed at night thinking about it. It wears you down so much, I wonder how I’m standing.

“You walk to the plate, and it’s like you’re trying to do three different things at once. You’re trying to hit a home run, drive in a run and get a hit all at once.

“To get the triple crown, one hit doesn’t do me any good. One hit in a game means I’m struggling.

“I’ve got to get two hits every night, and one of them has got to drive in runs.”

Said teammate Tony Gwynn, who has won four batting titles: “I’ve been under the microscope a lot in my career, especially with batting races. But nothing like this. He’s got reporters around him every day, press conferences set up, everything.”

If this weren’t enough to hinder Sheffield’s pursuit of the triple crown, he now has to overcome a monstrous obstacle. Gwynn sustained a sprained medial collateral ligament of his left knee Sept. 8 and is out the rest of the season. Without Gwynn in the lineup, there have been only seven baserunners in scoring position when Sheffield has stepped to the plate. And with so few baserunners, there have been few RBI opportunities.

When Sheffield hit a three-run homer Thursday against the Houston Astros, it was one fewer RBI than his total in the previous 22 games. It also was his first multiple-RBI game since Aug. 28.

“He’s changed his entire stance ever since people started to talk about the triple crown,” said Merv Rettenmund, Padre hitting coach. “He’s trying to pull every pitch now. Before, if the pitch was away, he’d just go to right field with it. Now, he’s going for the homer.

“I don’t think he has a chance to do it now, just because I can’t see him catching Daulton in RBIs without Tony playing.”

Sheffield also will be away from one his favorite places the final week of the season--San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Sheffield is hitting .370 at home, with 23 homers and 58 RBIs.

Forget singles and calling himself a line-drive hitter. Every time Sheffield is in the stadium, he feels like Jose Canseco.

“I’m not being arrogant or anything,” Sheffield said, “but I feel so comfortable here. I feel like I can do anything.”

Said McGriff, his best friend on the team, who lives next door: “Gary goes around now saying how he’s struggling. I say, ‘Gary, shut up. How can you be hitting .330 and struggling?’ ”

It has been a season that has left the entire league in awe. Atlanta Brave Manager Bobby Cox says he hasn’t seen anyone with Sheffield’s bat speed since Willie Mays. San Francisco Giant pitcher Bud Black says Sheffield looks like he’s whipping around a piece of balsa wood.

“What amazes me is not the hits he gets, or the balls he hits out of the ballpark,” said Padre veteran pitcher Larry Andersen, “but the look on pitchers’ faces when he takes them deep. I saw Buddy Black when he gave up a home run to him a couple weeks ago. Sheff circles the bases, crosses home and even after he had time to reflect, (Black) just stood there and said, ‘Wow!’ ”

Said Black, who has yielded a .412 career batting average to Sheffield: “What’s amazing is that some of the pitches on the inside corner he’s not only able to hit, but he jerks them out of the ballpark. For a left-handed pitcher, it’s absolutely frightening. There’s so little you can do with him.”

This is why, even though Sheffield is not playing on a first-place team, as are Terry Pendleton of Atlanta and Barry Bonds of Pittsburgh, he already has received their nominations for the most-valuable-player award.

Sheffield could care less if it takes another 55 years for the triple crown. It’s the MVP trophy he covets.

“That’s the most important thing to me,” Sheffield, said, “and to be honest, I feel I deserve it. There are guys who put up numbers, but this is beyond a good season. This is what guys dream about.

“If you put up stats like I have, being up there in every (triple crown) category, how can that stop you from winning?

“What more could I do?”

The end to his season will be in Atlanta next weekend. Sheffield has begun booking dozens of rooms for his friends and family. The way he’s been told, half of his hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla., will there.

“That’s all anyone in town is talking about,” said Harold Jones, Sheffield’s father. “He’s been the talk of the town all summer. I don’t think he’ll realize just what he’s done until he comes home for the winter.

“I’ve got a feeling that phone’s going to be ringing all day long.”

Sheffield, who earned $725,000 this season with his base salary and incentives, stands to at least quadruple his salary over the winter. Even if there’s a work stoppage next spring, Sheffield will have plenty of spending money. His winter has begun filling up with card shows and appearances.

“He can make as much money as he possibly wants,” said Jim Neader, Sheffield’s agent. “Everyone’s been calling.”

Unfortunately, Sheffield said, so have several of his friends. Many soon will become former friends. Never did he envision that so many people would have the gall to ask for handouts, and not small loans, either.

“I’ve still got some great friends,” Sheffield said, “but I also found out I have a lot of so-called friends. You can’t imagine what people are asking me for. Some of them are asking for big money, too.

“If you’re in a dire need, hey, it’s a different story. I’ll lend a helping hand. But I’m not just giving out money to guys so they don’t have to work.”

Yes sir, things will be different in St. Petersburg. Sheffield still plans to live at home, staying in the same bedroom he had when he played for Hillsborough High, but some of his friends better start changing.

“They’re going to have to do right by me now,” Sheffield said. “Some are going to have to change. I’ll respect them, but they have to respect me too. I can’t have them doing crazy stuff with me around.

“I don’t want to be going back and forth from court.

“If we all go out, I’m going to have to watch where I go. I know they’ll say, ‘You can’t go here now? You too good?’

“Hey, that has nothing to do with it. I know how I am, and I still love to fight. Don’t put me in a position or a situation where I have to defend myself.”

You see, this isn’t just a one-shot deal. This isn’t the only time Sheffield plans to have this kind of season. Get ready America, because he’s going to become a habit.

“I know people are going to expect more of me,” Sheffield says, “but that’s fine. Bring it on. Because I think I can do even more than this year.

“That’s not bragging, just a fact.”

Said Andersen, perhaps putting it all in perspective: “He’s obviously had a career year, but who will stop him from having a career-career?

“Does that makes sense?”

In Sheffield’s case, perfectly.