‘They Weren’t Treated Liked Everybody Else’- Former Yankees Star Once Accused 4-Time World Series-Winning Manager for Treating Black Players Differently in Pinstripes Clubhouse

Partiality in sports can sometimes become cruel. For the former baseball player Gary Sheffield, partiality is something he has seen first-hand during his playing days. Issues are present in almost every team, but letting them pile up becomes the one issue very hard to tackle. When Sheffield played for the New York Yankees, he saw some things happening around him that made him go haywire.

The things revolved around some players of the team having a problem with the team’s management. Especially, the then-manager of the Yanks, Joe Torre.

What were the issues with New York Yankees manager?

Sheffield said in an interview that during his time with the New York Yankees, black players present on the team always faced issues with then-manager Joe Torre.

About the same, Sheffield said, “They weren’t treated liked everybody else.” He also added, “I got called out in a couple of meetings that I thought were unfair. … [Torre] had a message to get across to the whole team, so he used me to get the message across.”

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This interview took place when Sheffield was playing for the Detroit Tigers team as an outfielder. And now, Gary works as a sports agent and lives with his wife, Deleon, and kids, in Tampa, Florida.

Did Sheffield think the Yanks’ manager was racist?

In the same interview, Sheffield also got asked if he thought Joe Torre was racist or not.

Although he did say that Joe treated players differently, but to this, he simply said no. In his words, “No. I think it’s the way they do things around there. Since I was there, I just saw that they run their ship different.” Apparently, it was how the New York Yankees’ management worked during that time. 

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Talking about race is a pretty sensitive topic. One has to think very clearly before saying anything. Sheffield said that Torre used him to get a message across to the team and that he did treat players differently. But, he did not call him a racist.