Wouldn’t it be interesting if “Gary was being Many” and “Many was being Gary”??

So before yesterday’s game, Gary Sheffield asked the Mets for a contract extension, the club rejected the request so Sheffield threatened to leave the team and head home. Baseball has two charters being themselves – “Many being Many”, and “Gary being Gary.” Wouldn’t it be interesting if “Gary was being Many” and “Many was being Gary?”

Here’s how the conversation actually went between Gary and Omar Minaya.

“Omar, if you don’t guarantee me a job for next year I’m going to take my 40 year old ass, go home and sit in my bedroom and hold my breaff. You don’t believe me I’ll do it!”

Mets pitcher Tim Redding actually claims he heard Sheffield had been released. Obviously that didn’t happen, because he pinch struck-out last night. That was just wishful thinking for Redding because he knows that he’s next to be released and he was lucky that Livan Hernandez got released and not him.

Sheffield had been part of the original lineup for Thursday night's game against the Braves, but Jerry Manuel said that Sheffield had pulled himself to clear his head.

Clear his head? How do you clear an empty space?

In large part Sheffield has been a good soldier with the Mets. But it was only a matter of time. He’s ultimately had a problem everywhere he has gone, and this was going to be no different.

He’s had a nice offensive career. You wouldn't have thought it in the late 80's, but Gary certainly ended up having a better overall career than his uncle Doc Gooden. That's Gary and uncle Doc in the picture up there 20 something years ago.

He’s got a few obstacles in his way to make the Hall of Fame though. The steroids are a given, but everyone was doing them, so I’m not sure that will hurt him too much. But the things that have come out of his mouth may make it tough. For me, I found it hard to be a Sheffield fan over the years ever since he was a rookie in Milwaukee and he threw the ball away on purpose because he wasn’t happy. That’s messing with the game and in my eyes isn’t much different then betting on the game AGAINST YOUR TEAM. Not even Pete Rose did that.

Whether he plays next year or not, he does have some impressive stats. Should he be enshrined in the MLB Hall of Fame? You decide……

Career BA of .292, .393 OBP, .514 SLG 509 HR’s, 1471 RBI, 1635 RS, 104 SB’s

In short, over 20 + years he’s averaged .292 BA / 32 HR’s / 106 RBI / 103 RS

Not bad. - Paul Leume

Paul Leume is a MLB columnist from Montreal, Canada. Paul, a one-time beat writer covering the Montreal Expos for the Montreal Gazette is a proud grandfather of 3 girls and now spends his time offering his thoughts and prospective on Major League Baseball on a variety of blogs and websites throughout Al Gore’s internet.