New York Mets: Six wacky batting stances the fans will never forget

Gary Sheffield

The 2009 Mets were notorious for featuring a rash of injuries almost unmatched in Mets history, but among the season’s highlights were the efforts of Gary Sheffield. The slugger spent the final year of his splendid 22-year career in Flushing, retiring after the 2009 season. Sheffield had spent a few years across town with the New York Yankees from 2004-2006, but it was in Queens that Sheffield hit one of the most memorable home runs of his career.

Sheffield’s batting stance was one that impressionable young kids watching baseball and molding their own hitting technique would not easily forget. He stood crouched over the plate and wiggled his bat back and forth before every pitch so violently that it looked like he was either waving to someone in the crowd with the bat or wafting away any baseball demons that had been following him that day.

One wonders how he ever managed to line up the bat with the ball in time to make contact, but Sheffield did that plenty of times while he was on the field. He finished his career with many Hall of Fame-worthy numbers: 509 home runs, a career .292 batting average, nearly 2700 hits, and over 1600 career RBI.

While with the Mets, he made headlines when he hit his 500th career home run on April 17, 2009. He is, to date, the only member of the Mets to ever hit a 500th career home run, though of course 499 of Sheffield’s home runs came before he arrived in Flushing.

Sheffield has been on the Hall of Fame ballot every year since 2015, and his vote percentage has increased during that time from 11.7% in 2015 to 30.5% in 2020. His chances at HOF induction are marred by connections to PED use, bad defensive metrics throughout his career, and potentially the fact that he played for many different teams.

Nonetheless, Sheffield’s indelible batting stance and home run history has etched him a place in the canon of Mets lore, whether or not he eventually makes it to the Hall of Fame.