Gary Sheffield not elected into MLB Hall of Fame

Of the 34 nominees on the 2015 ballot for the MLB Hall of Fame, only one ever played for the Brewers: The notorious Gary Sheffield.

Sheffield will not be inducted into the Hall, however, at least not yet. In a stacked Hall of Fame class, he was unable to procure enough votes for entry: Just 11.7% of voters thought he was worthy of induction. However, four players were voted into the hall: Randy Johnson (97.3%), Pedro Martinez (91.1%), John Smoltz (82.9%) and Craig Biggio (82.7%). A player must earn 75% of the vote to be elected. Sheffield did earn the requisite number of votes to stay on the ballot

In years past, Sheffield's 509 career home runs would have been a guaranteed ticket to immortality. But as that number has become more prominent, it has become less of a certainty that a player achieving the feat is elected. It doesn't help that Sheffield was one of the prominent players mentioned in the Mitchell Report as having used steroids.

Over a 22 year career, Sheffield hit .292/.393/.514 in addition to his prodigious power. He rarely stayed in one place long though, playing for eight franchises.

He began his career in the Brewers' organization coming up first as a 19-year-old shortstop in 1988. He never really flourished in four years with Milwaukee, however, with a 771 OPS in 1990 being his only decent campaign. Sheffield was also a distraction off the field. After losing a competition to Bill Spiers for the team's starting shortstop position, Sheffield was moved to third base. This led to Sheffield accusing the organization of racism (Spiers was white).

Sheffield was also accused of indifferent fielding by Brewers' management in 1989, though Sheffield claimed it was due to an injured foot. After he was sent to the minors, x-rays revealed he did have a fracture. This contributed to him not trusting the organization any longer. Sheffield would also later admit to purposefully throwing balls into the stands.

All these issues piled up, and the Brewers chose to trade him when he was just entering his age-23 season. In a deal with the Padres, the Brewers picked up Ricky Bones, Jose Valentin and Matt Mieske.

Sheffield was a great hitter and, if one were only looking at his stats, he would be a likely candidate to enter the hall. But in an age when Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are both on the outside looking in thus far, Sheffield's case looks impossible.

And a lot of Brewers fans probably won't mind too much if Sheffield stays out of the hall.