Longtime MLB slugger Gary Sheffield was on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the 10th and final time this year. He finished with 63.9% of the vote this year, below the 75% threshold to be inducted.
Sheffield opened up about missing out on the Hall of Fame while appearing on Audacy’s “The Bret Boone Podcast” this week.
“I was beyond surprised. I was real hopeful this year,” Sheffield said (2:10 in player above). “When I did the Harold Reynolds special I kind of shared my story. He’s been trying to get me to share my story and speak up about the Hall of Fame for years and I just said I shouldn’t have to campaign for anything, my track record speaks for itself.”
Sheffield was an elite hitter throughout his career. He hit 509 home runs while batting .292 in his 22-year career. The nine-time All-Star won five Silver Slugger awards and was a World Series champion with the Florida Marlins in 1997.
Some of the doubts about Sheffield in the Hall of Fame came because of him being named in the Mitchell Report. Former US Senator George J. Mitchell’s 20-month investigation into performance-enhancing-drug use in MLB. However, Sheffield doesn’t think that should be held against him.
“I spoke about any and everything that anybody ever asked me. The only thing that disturbed me is something that they said about the Mitchell Report,” Sheffield continued. “He said that I never went to Bud Selig’s office to complain about players being on steroids, and that was disheartening to me because I feel like any time you meet with the commissioner there should be documentation or something to say there was a meeting that took place. To flat out deny that because Bud Selig’s in the Hall of Fame, I was disappointed in that.”
Sheffield didn’t pay attention to much to the Hall of Fame voting after his first year, but with this being his final year on the ballot, his family was giddy thinking that this was the year.
The slugger mentioned Bob Nightengale among reporters that he was in contact with before the Hall of Fame voting being revealed.
“A lot of reporters called and said that they were trying to talk to reporters to vote,” he said. “The problem was a lot of them weren’t voting for 10 players, they were just voting for two or three players. So if they needed to keep somebody on the ballot then they would vote to keep that guy on the ballot. A lot of votes just weren’t taking place because they weren’t using the 10 votes they had. He was trying to share my story to each and every reporter to vindicate me but it just didn’t translate.”
Some reporters may have a certain view of a player like Sheffield without watching or knowing him.
“If a reporter has a vote and he didn’t really know my story or watch me play on an everyday basis then what’s the credibility of a guy voting for anybody that he didn’t watch or follow? Or a player may not be their preference,” Sheffield said. “You and I both know about this game, people have preferences. They have guys that they choose to like and then if somebody says something about a guy that they don’t know then they choose to dislike him without even getting to know him.”
Sheffield explained why he believes the Hall of Fame voting process could use some changes.
“It’s a flawed system based on guys not watching you on a day-to-day basis. Because if they did there’s no way they could look at you with a straight face and say this guy’s better than this guy and his numbers mean more than his numbers,” he said. “Just from that standpoint alone, it’s biased and a lot of it is politics and a lot of other things when you look at it.
“For me, there’s no one way that is going to fix this problem but I can tell you that reporters are human beings, and the fact that they can tell you that they’re not biased, I don’t believe that, whoever believes that is believing a fool because I just know for a fact that they are biased and they do what they want to do and how they want to do it.
There is still a chance for Sheffield to get into the Hall of Fame via the Veterans Committee.
“Hall of Fame is Hall of Fame. The fact is that those guys are there for a reason and they wouldn’t have a committee if they were doing it right every time,” he said. “So these guys are there to make a wrong a right. I’ve talked to a couple of guys – that’s why I leave names out, guys that I talk to – that kind of explained the process to me…
“I just want this for my fans. I have a lot of fans. I get people writing me to this day and I respond back to it, each and every one of them, and I tell them just hold on, we’re going to get there, and when we do I’ll acknowledge them.”