Gary Sheffield, The Almost Red Sox?
Yesterday afternoon, Extra Bases reported that “[Gary] Sheffield told the Globe that Boston would have been his first choice and was dreaming of being in the middle of the Sox lineup. Obviously the Yankees knew it, picked up the option and traded Sheffield to Detroit.”
In today’s Globe they present the exchange they had with Sheffield in which this came to light.
This is a real hypothetical question: If the Yankees had not picked up the option on your contract . . . GS: “Boston was the first place I was going. It was the first place. That’s no lie.”
You just like the atmosphere, the team, the city? GS: “I like the atmosphere. I like the passion, just like New York. I love hitting in that park, which I thought would be ideal for me. I looked at the situation where I thought that it might be Trot Nixon’s last year there, and I thought with Manny, Ortiz, and me, that would make quite a lineup.”
Did the Yankees sense that you would have gone to the Red Sox? GS: “No doubt about that. They knew and they didn’t want that to happen. I was upset about it at the time because I knew Boston was a great fit.”
Even though you had the incident with the fan at Fenway in the right-field corner a few years back, you still wanted to come? GS: “That was one of those isolated incidents. All the times I’ve gone in there, the fans have been great to me. I felt they respected me because I come with my A game when I come there.”
While we’re on the subject, and since this post might attract the attention of Portland-area members of Red Sox Nation, I should mention something else. Last year, I let Almost Boston fall into general disuse.
In the main, that was because I didn’t have it in me to maintain it as a one-person site, and the other people who in the past have participated, or who last year expressed an interest in participating, also just sort of let it lapse.
Now that we’re in the midst of Spring Training, it’s time to ask: Are there any local(ish) Red Sox fans out there who would post to Almost Boston if I brought them in? Or should I just let the site rest as-is, as an archive of the attempt?