Strangers in a Strange Land

When prominent figures in the baseball world start talking conspiracy theories you can be damn sure that we chroniclers of the Barajas Legend are all ears.

Easy to be critical of Gary Sheffield on this one. His words can easily be read as offensive and his ire seems to be wildly misplaced. The drop in black ballplayers is a multi faceted issue with causes ranging from a lack of park department funding for baseball fields in our urban centers, to the marketing genius of Pete Rozelle and David Stern. If Sheffield's conspiracy theory focuses most of its eye on the rising number of Latin ballplayers (we haven't been privy to the full interview) that would be silly. But it's fair to say that he's not all wrong with respect to the taking advantage of young Latin players angle--that angle, however, simply doesn't relate to the drop in interest in the game of baseball among black youth. Curiously, a number of his Latin teammates stand behind his remarks. Though, it is perhaps fair to suppose that in the name of clubhouse tranquility they would have ventured out on a even more precarious limb for their new DH. Or perhaps they are already well enough acquainted with him after these few months together to know that it's best to simply ignore Sheff entirely and move on.

But I think we're really losing focus of the larger issue here, people. Sure, Sheffield's comments were offensive to many, but the message at the heart of his words was not entirely off the mark. Of course the Latin players are controlled, but only insofar as all of the 750 players in Major League Baseball are controlled. Controlled, that is, by the mischievous Puppet Master Barajas.

Sheffield's Barajas number is 2. Once Kenny Rogers rejoins the Detroit Tigers from the 60-day DL he and Shefield will officially become teammates. Rogers and Barajas joined forces to play several rather effective games of soft toss for the 2005 Texas Rangers.