Sheffield might have trouble finding work

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

You would assume that someone who has a baseball card that looks like Gary Sheffield's would have more job opportunities. The slugger has 499 career homers, 2,615 hits and 1,633 RBIs, and even in what was an off year for him in 2008, he mashed 19 homers in 418 at-bats.

And when Sheffield was asked by a reporter in Lakeland, Fla., on Tuesday morning about whether he intended to retire, he responded: "It ain't close." As in, he is sure he can play.

But even after he clears waivers, as expected, and even though any interested suitor would have to pay him only a minimum salary of $400,000, he might have few offers -- if any.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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