Gary Sheffield Needs to Be Booed

I'm sick of cheering Gary on, hoping he gets a hit. At this point Id rather boo him and scream for a pinch hitter

Today was the cumulation of the frustration with Gary. Bottom of the 8th, down by one run, full count, men on first and second. Jim Leyland calls for the hit and run. The pitch by the left hander Okajima was a fast ball, belt high and right down the center of the plate. Gary Swings!... and misses. Maggs is thrown out at third by a mile because Gary couldn't even make contact with a fastball right down the middle. That cost us a scoring chance and almost the game (thank you Polanco).

It doesn't seem to matter where you stick Gary in the lineup or the field, he is becoming a liability on offense. I don't know if i can excuse it for injury or what, but his bat does not seem to be feared by anyone anymore. He seems to pop out or strike out every other at bat. The only reason his batting average isn't under .100 is because he has so many "non at bats" because of walks.

The problem is, what do you do with him. He is getting paid a ton of money to do one thing, hit. Jim Leyland seems to have the ultimate trust in him, but a two month slump is past a slump. I am sure the Tigers do not want to eat his salary by designating him. So really the only alternatives are DL, bench, or continue to play him and hope.

The first option leaves us without Gary for at least 15 days. Thames could easily fit in Left or i suppose you could use Brandon as well. But this option would likely bring out the headcase that is Gary Sheffield. Benching also has the same problems of him not seeing live pitching for a certain amount of time, probably not real helpful to get his swing straight.

Playing him is like batting a pitcher right now.

My solution? None of those options. Gary is one of the strangest, craziest individuals in the world. He is probably completely backwards of any of us. Gary once said last year during his April slump that he wanted the Detroit fans to boo him for his poor performance. So my solution is boo the crap out of him until he starts hitting. During the games I watch and the games i have been to, the urging chant "GARY! GARY!" is predominant during any clutch situation he comes into. Gary hates being rooted for. Do the opposite! Boo him until we can cheer for him.

His "best" series thus far has been the New York series. The New York fans hate Gary, for all kinds of reasons. They booed him every time he went up to bat. He even managed to get a HR during that series.

I know this is completely opposite of how us Detroit fans normally act. We are very forgiving and optimistic about our athletes. We like to cheer for them. The best example is the fact that Detroit fans root for athletes everyone else hates, like Rasheed and Chelios. But we have to act more like New York fans wheneven A-rod goes 0-4.

BOOOOOOO!!!!!! BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!