Morning Walk-thru - Sheffield of Dreams

A revelation...At its worst, sportswriting can seem somewhat parasitic. A bunch of guys who could never hit a 94mph fastball or even get the ball across half court in an NBA game criticizing and nitpicking non-stop. I'm as guilty of it as anyone but, with the above in mind, I do try to keep the negativity to a minimum. (The Cubs bullpen being the exception.)

Which is why I'm happy to report that Gary Sheffield is a pretty good guy. I know this because I spent almost an hour (including approximately 14 minutes of actual conversation) with the Tigers slugger yesterday while he was doing a book signing at my store here in Boston.

All in all he was a laid-back, polite, easy going sort of guy. Nothing like the malcontent I'd previously thought. He posed for pictures, signed memorabilia (despite posted notices to the contrary) and answered every question posed to him. Granted an hour isn't the biggest sample size but far more serious assumptions have been made based on far less.

Two particular gems from our brief conversation:

--I asked Sheffield about facing Dice-K the night before, specifically his 7-pitch toolbox and, while acknowledging Matsuzaka's major league talent, Sheffield said he only saw four of the magic pitches last night (fastball, forkball, change, slider.) Doesn't mean he doesn't have them, but you'd think if you pitch all nine you might try every thing in your repertoire.

--Second, Sheffield's advice for preparing to face a knuckleballer (i.e. Wakefield). You don't. "Sit back and swing up." Does anyone other than Wakefield even throw the knuckler at this point? Gary and I, see we're friends now, couldn't think of anyone else.

Don't get me wrong. It's not like Sheff and I were sitting around like old teammates in just stirrups and shower shoes shooting the shit. I just saw a couple openings and got two quick questions in and it's pretty satisfying to get a major league answer to both.

Just call me Rasheed Wallace...You heard it here first, the Suns will win tonight. Sure Diaw and Stoudemire are out with b.s. suspensions and that hurts Pheonix much more than Big Shot Bob's absence hurts the Spurs, but this is just one of those sports situations that has so often defied logic that it's become perfectly logical.

Call it karma or whatever you want, but the fact is, Phoenix will play up this victim angle to the fullest. They're at home, the crowd will be out for blood from the get go, and you just don't back a wild animal into a corner, even a three-legged animal.

Steve Nash could have one of the best playoff performances you ever seen tonight. Tune in.

What is this?...You know, I would've felt much better if the Babykillers (i.e. the Cubs bullpen) had given up at least a couple of runs in last night's 10-1 drubbing of the Mets. Not that I'm getting greedy. It was nice to see the bats explode last night, but what's the point of not giving up any runs when you've got nine to play with?

It's sort of like trying to beat Sunday Tiger on Tiger Woods Golf. He's not going to make many mistakes, but when he does, when you know you're going to pick up a hole on him, there's no need to use your TigerVision. This doesn't happen often, but when it does it's okay to two-putt.

I feel like the Cubs used up an Eyre-vision last night and I promise you it will come back to get them sooner or later.