Sheffield Has Kind Words for Girardi

Gary Sheffield may hate Scott Boras, but he has nothing but nice things to say about new Yankee skipper Joe Girardi.

From the NY Post:

"I think Girardi will do great," the former Yankee told The Post yesterday at Tigertown. "I'm not saying that he's better than Joe (Torre), he's just different. He's an X and O guy, that is something I've stressed and I believe. When a guy is smart about the game, you can never trick him, you can never fool him. He's always prepared and he puts his players in the right spot. It's up to you to succeed. You either do or you don't.

"When you approach the game that way and are that prepared, it just boils down to talent," Sheffield added. "That's how I've lasted so long. That's something my granddaddy stressed to me."

"Girardi is more of a dictator," Sheffield said. "When you are a dictator, it depends on how you are perceived. It's either going to be received positively or negatively. Most of those guys played with him so they know his personality."

Sheff also spoke about comments he made last year when he called Joe Torre a racist:

"If you asked me point blank if I think Joe Torre is racist, I'd say no. But at the same time you don't have to be a racist, but you can be biased."

With regards to Derek Jeter, the Tigers desig nated hitter said he wasn't trying to personally at tack the Yan kees short stop and seemed to regret his comment last summer when he said Jeter, who is bi-racial, "ain't all the way black." He explained Jeter is treated differently because he is Mr. Yankee.

"You can't put Derek Jeter in our conversation because he's been a Yankee from Day 1," Sheffield said. "Derek Jeter is bigger than Joe Torre, why would Joe Torre go after him? People took it wrong. Derek and I have talked since then, but you can tell it's been strained. Oh, well."

And had this to say about Roger Clemens:

Sheffield said he feels for Clemens as a human being and because baseball is a fraternity.

"But at the same time, Roger is getting what everybody else is getting," Sheffield said. "Now he knows what it's like to be us."