In our game on Monday night, Gary Sheffield hit two home runs, the second of which was a grand slam. The grand slam not only gave us a big 8-2 lead but also was a very historic home run. The grand slam became the 250,000th home run ever hit in Major League Baseball history.
It's amazing that in Sheffield's chase for his 500th career home run (he presently has 496 in his career), he hit such a milestone homer in baseball history.
When I was younger, Sheffield was one of my favorite players. He's always been so strong with his swing, and when he hits the ball everything seems to be such a hard line drive. I remember when he was in a home run contest during the All-Star break one year, he didn't advance past the first round because every ball he hit was a line drive into the fence instead of high-arching fly balls. Even the two home runs he hit on Monday were line drives that left the yard in a hurry.
Getting a chance to be his teammate has been a privilege and an honor. I have learned so much just by being around him. He is one of those guys who, when he talks, all I have to do is listen and I feel I grow as a baseball player because he has so much knowledge. When I sit back and look at his stats, it is so crazy to see what he has accomplished.
Once he hits his 500th career homer, he will become the 25th player to do so and just the 10th among those 25 players to have more walks than strikeouts in his career.
Being only four home runs shy of the 500 mark, I hope that Gary will accomplish the feat this season, and hopefully he'll do it here in Detroit and with me as his teammate. If he does it, it will be the third big accomplishment that I have been able to be part of, along with
Kenny Rogers' 200th career win in 2006 and
Justin Verlander's no-hitter last season.
Curtis Granderson
