Gary Sheffield is an idiot!

[Pedro Cerrano]

Possibly. Or maybe he's completely right, and nobody's ever taken Torre to task for his actions before. We don't know. My question is, why does everyone assume that Sheffield is wrong?

If John Rocker accused a black manager of being racist would you assume he was wrong?

[rolliefingers]

If John Rocker accused a black manager of being racist would you assume he was wrong?

EDIT: You think Rocker has as much credibility as Sheffield?

[Leitch]

Idiot may be too strong for this one incident. Like I said before, he is a player who was hurt that the Yankees discarded him. He's bitter and is lashing out. Now his comments a month ago - those were idiotic.

Do we actually know he's not telling the truth or are we just assuming that because we don't like Sheffield?

[rolliefingers]

Do we actually know he's not telling the truth or are we just assuming that because we don't like Sheffield?

Um,

NO WE CLEARLY HAVE ALL THE FACTS AT HAND

[ledzepp8]

I almost know I shouldn't be jumping into this, but I'm not really sure what Sheffield has said in this article/interview that makes him an idiot

Exactly. I don't like Sheffield but even if Torre isn't racist and doesn't favor white players over black players, Sheffield and Lofton may still see it that way. People may not agree with them but it doesn't necessarily make them wrong, and it certainly doesn't make them idiots.

[Pedro Cerrano]

EDIT: You think Rocker has as much credibility as Sheffield?

In terms of comments concerning racial issues, they both have zero credibility in my eyes. The things Rocker said were absolutely horrendous, but excuse me for thinking twice about accepting what Sheffield said after the things he said about Hispanic players a while back.

[geschinger]

Possibly. Or maybe he's completely right, and nobody's ever taken Torre to task for his actions before. We don't know. My question is, why does everyone assume that Sheffield is wrong?

He does have a track record of saying incredibly stupid things and that has to be factored in. The response is going to be a lot different to something coming from him than say if it had been Bernie Williams who made the assertion.

I think Olney probably has it about right in his blog entry about the story.

But Torre's way of handling slumps, sometimes, is to call out the best players -- the players who he believes possess the most confidence to deal with criticism; it's a way of drawing all the players together. If he picks on only the youngest and most fragile players, like a Clay Bellinger or an Andy Phillips or a Colter Bean, then he would have no credibility. He's criticized Clemens in meetings and Jeter and O'Neill and Williams.

Maybe Torre is guilty of misreading how Sheffield would take this. Or maybe Torre is guilty of not liking Sheffield, in particular; other players -- white, black, Latin -- have privately felt that he didn't like them, in particular. But in four years of covering Torre, I never once had a sense that he had less or more regard for any player based on race.

[rolliefingers]

In terms of comments concerning racial issues, they both have zero credibility in my eyes. The things Rocker said were absolutely horrendous, but excuse me for thinking twice about accepting what Sheffield said after the things he said about Hispanic players a while back.

Sheffield's comments re: Latinos had more truth to them than what Rocker said.

[rolliefingers]

He does have a track record of saying incredibly stupid things and that has to be factored in. The response is going to be a lot different to something coming from him than say if it had been Bernie Williams who made the assertion.

I think Olney probably has it about right in his blog entry about the story.

See, I think his take makes a lot more sense than either Sheffield's take or some of the comments here. Sheffield strikes me as pretty over-sensitive about a lot of things, but I do not think he's an "idiot". The whole thing seems like a misunderstanding of Torre's motives.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Sheffield's comments re: Latinos had more truth to them than what Rocker said.

How do you know? And by saying that I'm not saying that Rocker's statements had any truth whatsoever but there is absolutely no way to tell that Sheffield saying that Hispanics are "easily told what to do" or whatever had ANY truth to it at all.

The point is, this isn't the first time Sheffield has yapped off about something racial. Not to mention the double standard if a white person had said the same thing about a black manager. I doubt you'd be saying "how do we know what he said isn't true?"

I really don't want to debate this anymore. You prefer to give Sheffield the benefit of the doubt, I do not.

[Pedro Cerrano]

See, I think his take makes a lot more sense than either Sheffield's take or some of the comments here. Sheffield strikes me as pretty over-sensitive about a lot of things, but I do not think he's an "idiot". The whole thing seems like a misunderstanding of Torre's motives.

Well that's just an argument over semantics.

[rolliefingers]

Yeah, I am cutting bait on this discussion.

[Elbren]

I love Sheffield as a player but he's just a guy that runs off at the mouth too much. Nothing is ever his fault. He makes comments like, "if I took what Barry Bonds took, why don't I look like him? ... I had a problem with him at that time, but I moved on and forgave.", but wonders why he and Barrry don't talk as much. He's directly linked to steroids and makes comments like, "not all steroids are steroids", says during the same tv interview he'd take a test "anytime/anywhere", but when asked to take one right now, he says, "you'd have to talk to the union", but he doesn't understand why the subject keeps coming up. As for his comments about Jeter, I'm absolutely astonished that MLB hasn't said anything this. If a "country boy" like Roger Clemens said Derek Jeter "doesn't count ... he's not all black", there would be a national uproar. Somehow, it's ok for Sheff to question Jeters' "blackness"??? Makes you wonder what he thinks of his own kid.

As for Lofton's comments, I don't really put much credit into them. All he really said was that he agreed with Sheffield ... didn't actually back it up with a story or particular incident that he remembered. If you're not going bother backing up something you say, then why bother saying it?? Now, if he comes back and says, "Well, I remember seeing this ...", or, "Torre once said to me ...", that's a whole different story. But just saying, "Yeah, I think he's right", ranks your opinion right up there with someone who posts on the Sun message boards.

[RayFink1e]

This makes no sense.

New York is the media capitol of the world. If Torre was even a hint racist, I think it would of took a little less then 12 years for someone to firgure it out.

[Chollie Eckman]

I bet the problem is that Torre doesn't pay homage to the double standard the Sheffields and Loftons of the world are so used too. Does Sheffield or Lofton offer any specifics? or was the perceived "disrespect" enough? Sheffield argues more ball and strikes in Major League baseball, but he never gets run. He's an A$$.