When Gary Sheffield's interview with GQ became big news late last week, we were
among the first to bumrush Sheffield as being an idiot, or at the very least being a silly guy not very good at managing his communicative output. After all, Sheffield's insinuation was that Latino players were more willing and able to be controlled, something we didn't think most Latino players would agree with. At the time, Sheff deserved what he got.
But since then, the GQ storm has blown over and
Sheffield has had a chance to explain himself. He's even had a little help from Latino teammate Carlos Guillen, who said he agrees with the crux of what Sheffield is saying. Essentially, Sheffield didn't meant to say Latinos had more controllable tendencies. It's more complicated than that, as
Sheffield explained in an interview with the
New York Times' resident race-in-sports columnist, William C. Rhoden:
"Baseball has a choice of which black faces it wants representing baseball," Sheffield said Thursday during a telephone interview. "They're choosing Latinos. What I was saying is that they're choosing them because they can sign them for $2,000 and if they don't take it, what do they have to do? They got to go back to where they're from and they got to eat hot dogs for dinner."
Rhoden goes on to explain that Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB executive vice president for baseball operations, basically agrees with Sheffield. After all, it
is cheaper to raise and sign international talent, something
we've discussed here at the FanHouse before. That price differential hurts domestic players of all colors, but hurts black players disproportionately more because it is more common for African-Americans to lack the funds needed to pay for some portion of a collegiate baseball scholarship in the states.
Sheffield isn't wrong here; he just isn't very good at saying what he means. But a lack of tact and a lack of intelligence are far from the same thing, and it's time we awarded Sheffield the courtesy of distinguishing the two.
Previously at the FanHouse:
Gary Sheffield Responds to GQ CommentsMoney To Blame For Lack of Black Baseball Players
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