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Former slugger Gary Sheffield claims MLB tried to drive him out of the game within the Nineteen Nineties after he spoke out in regards to the growing steroid scandal.
“I used to be the primary man to carry up the steroid scenario,” he mentioned throughout an look on the Foul Territory Show. “I had an issue with it as a result of I felt [players who were juicing] have been taking MVPs away from me. I had a private downside with it as a result of I did the Bryant Gumbel particular, I used to be with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and I introduced it up. And I mentioned with out saying names, there’s this one man that’s hitting all these dwelling runs that I had 150 dwelling runs greater than. And I practice such as you wouldn’t consider within the offseason, and I used to be nonetheless hitting 30 and 40 dwelling runs a 12 months, and now he has 150 dwelling runs greater than me. That’s not possible.”
That second, on Actual Sports activities with Bryant Gumbel, Sheffield talked about how he was the primary one to speak about using performance-enhancing medication after the BALCO Scandal got here to mild. He felt that the punishments MLB was giving out weren’t harsh sufficient, and mentioned he remained a loyal advocate for banning steroids and different unlawful substances.
Nonetheless, Sheffield admitted to utilizing PEDs earlier than the 2002 season, and was additionally implicated within the BALCO scandal after a FedEx receipt was present in a federal search warrant of coach Greg Anderson’s rental.
“Then as soon as I began talking like that, Main League Baseball tried to hush me up,” the 22-year MLB vet mentioned. “Bud Selig referred to as me into the workplace and advised me to cease it with the steroid stuff as a result of I’m drawing an excessive amount of consideration to the sport in a detrimental approach.”
Sheffield batted .292 with 509 dwelling runs and 1,676 RBI — and was good for 60.5 WAR — throughout his time with the Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, the then-Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and New York Mets.
The nine-time All-Star was on his tenth and remaining 12 months on the Corridor of Fame poll. Whereas he reached his highest proportion of votes — 63.9% — he nonetheless fell in need of induction into Cooperstown.
In response, Sheffield mentioned the voting course of is a “flawed system.”
“It’s a flawed system based mostly on guys not watching you on a day-to-day foundation. As a result of in the event that they did there’s no approach they might take a look at you with a straight face and say this man’s higher than this man and his numbers imply greater than his numbers,” he said during an appearance on The Bret Boone Podcast. “Simply from that standpoint alone, it’s biased and lots of it’s politics and lots of different issues when you take a look at it.
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