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Becoming a Major League ballplayer for Dwight and me, that was the dream.
Crown
April 2007
On Sale: April 3, 2007
Featuring: Gary Sheffield
256 pages
ISBN: 0307352226
EAN: 9780307352224
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
Dwight is Dwight Gooden. Most people know him for winning
the Cy Young Award. To me, though, he’s family, an uncle,
but at four years older, really a brother. I can still
remember those games of catch with Dwight in the backyard:
him rearing back, and me somehow getting my mitt up to stop
one of his fireballs. Often the two of us would sit with
Grandpa (Dwight’s dad), and he’d tell us how hard it would
be to make our dream come true, how just playing our best
wouldn’t be enough. He’d talk about “inside power.” At the time, I didn’t really understand what Grandpa was
driving at. But I do now. After twenty years in the “bigs”
and seven Major League teams, I understand. When I landed
with my first team, Milwaukee, I thought being a ballplayer
was about hitting home runs. I’ve always been good at that.
It took me longer to learn that “the game” as it’s played at
the Major League level with millions on the line and the
cameras always turned in your direction asks far more of you. If you’re a go-along guy, it can be great. I’ve just found
that too often “going along” gets in the way of being a man.
I love this game. Love the feel of the bat in my hand, the
grass under my feet, the shouts of encouragement as I step
into the box. I draw strength from the fans and play my
heart out for them. I just wish those who control the game had more respect for
the guys doing the playing. What I want to do in this book is show you what it’s been
like taking this strange, wonderful, sometimes immensely
frustrating life journey. “Malcontent” . . . “greedy” . . .
“selfish” I’ve had plenty of adjectives lobbed my way, and
believe me, they’ve stung. There are a lot of stories to
tell from a life lived on and off the field: some sweet,
others horrific. Everything from soaking up Little League
glory to nearly being shot to death, from learning the
startling truth of how I came by my last name to playing
with and for characters like A-Rod, Jeter, Lasorda, Leyland,
and Torre. And, yeah, I’ll finally set the record straight
about a guy named Steinbrenner and a guy named Bonds. It’s a story Grandpa would want me to tell. It’s a story I
need to tell.
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