TAMPA – He was part of the first Yankee group to sign autographs at the YES Network’s pregame function. He mustered two dribblers that became RBI singles in three at-bats against Cincinnati pitching.
Gary Sheffield even spoke with reporters for more than 10 minutes following the Yankees’ 6-5 loss to the Reds, sounding humble about his first spring-training game following offseason shoulder surgery.
Nobody’s going to confuse the Yankee right fielder with Dick Vermeil or Matt Doherty, but Sheffield acted and sounded grateful about his latest comeback step.
“Just to know you can play a baseball game without feeling the agony or the pain I had last year, I can’t really explain it,” Sheffield said. “I just know when I’m healthy what I can do, and I try to hold back how I really feel.”
Since a setback a few weeks ago, Sheffield had brought his lethal swing along slowly from offseason left shoulder surgery. He missed the intrasquad contests and the first three exhibition games.
He only pronounced himself fit to manager Joe Torre after a successful batting practice session Saturday and a heart-to-heart with teammate Bernie Williams.
Williams has endured shoulder problems and missed most of last spring with appendicitis. Sheffield said the talk had as much to do with the mental part of the game as anything.
“Bernie’s a winner,” Sheffield said. “And you have a veteran player coming up to you and trying to help you through your situation …
“It’s just a matter of getting each other through the difficult times.”
Torre will play Sheffield against Cleveland today.
“If he’s uncomfortable, we’ll go from there,” Torre said. “We’ll see how tomorrow goes, because it will be two games in a row.”
Sheffield shooed away reporters last week after his contract demands became public, feeling he was unfairly portrayed as angry. He wants interest on his contract and had initially refused to do YES promos in protest.
Yesterday, he said his five-day media blackout was about being separated from his teammates.
“That’s the hard part of playing this game: when you can’t get out there with them and have fun and laugh and win ballgames,” he said. “Everybody knows when I can’t play, I get real frustrated.
“And I don’t hide it.”
After flying out to left in his first at-bat, Sheffield dribbled singles to the right side of the infield to plate runs in the third and fourth.
“I told [hitting coach Don Mattingly], ‘I have to go from first base over,'” he said. “It might look ugly at first, but it just takes time.
“Right now, I just have to get back to being a complete hitter.”
