Sheffield Wants to Give, so Get Your Forms in Now

So much more than the uniform changes when a player is traded in midseason.

There’s a new home to find, a new community to discover. It’s hard to contribute to your city when you don’t know anyone there.

“When you come to a new team, you have to reestablish yourself,” Gary Sheffield says.

The house, a spot in Bel Air Crest across the 405 Freeway from the Getty Museum, is taken care of. Now his main concern is giving away money.

Sheffield likes to award college scholarships to graduating high school seniors in his team’s area. He has been doing it since he was a minor leaguer in Stockton 11 years ago, using some of his signing bonus to fund a scholarship.

“I was blessed to be in a situation where I could give back, and I took advantage of the opportunity and I gave back,” Sheffield says.

Sheffield hasn’t had much time to find candidates in Los Angeles since he came to the Dodgers from the Florida Marlins as part of the Mike Piazza trade on May 15. It didn’t help that the Dodgers spent 10 of the next 12 days on the road.

The race is on.

“People are graduating,” says his publicist, Marvet Britto. “It’s June. I have to get the word out quickly.”

Britto said Sheffield will give out four $5,000 scholarships to seniors from single-parent homes who are already accepted to college. They must “exemplify an outstanding level of community involvement and academic accomplishment.”

The single-parent requirement didn’t come from Sheffield’s personal upbringing, but rather Britto’s experience running a similar program for Houston Astro outfielder Derek Bell.

“We thought that single parents have a harder time,” Britto says. “Derek Bell did grow up in a single-parent home. With two parents, there’s more of a chance. With one parent, there’s less.”

Britto says she will solicit information from local agencies such as the Los Angeles chapter of the United Negro College Fund. “They know the high schools here better,” she says. “They have a relationship.”

Britto also encouraged candidates to send information to The Britto Group at 314 West 53rd St., Suite 115, New York, NY, 10019.

“There’s a lot of families that write in, they’re single parents and the mother’s making like $11,000 a year,” Sheffield says. “That right there shows me the kid needs it. When I see that, I always try to pay attention.

“It’s tough, because a lot of people write in with sad stories. I have to pick out of a list of 10. I really listen to what they write and [ask], are they really going to stay in there, hang in there and finish school?

“There’s always that one kid in there that can make it.”

While trying to make friends in his new town, Sheffield wants to make a contribution to his hometown of Tampa, Fla.

“Back home, I’m building a facility,” he says. “Guys that want to play sports, they can. But they can come to the program and learn different trades. I think you shouldn’t just limit yourself to sports. You should educate your mind, and hopefully you can go further in life.

“I feel I have to give back to show my appreciation for me being in Little League, for me being in a program like that. They gave me an opportunity.”

Sometimes opportunity comes disguised in strange vessels. In the wake of the news that Magic Johnson contracted HIV, the fight against AIDS gained one of the best spokesmen around.

The trade that brought Sheffield, Charles Johnson, Bobby Bonilla and Jim Eisenreich to the Dodgers in exchange for Piazza and Todd Zeile and how it came about exemplified everything that is wrong with baseball today: players wanting more money, corporate executives making the baseball decisions, teams gutting their rosters to hack away at their payroll.

But maybe four scholarships will make four L.A. students think this trade was a good thing, even if the Dodgers don’t win the World Series this year, even if Sheffield never duplicates the 42 home runs and 120 RBIs he produced in 1996.

Finances can often play as large a role in college as grades. Many students don’t get through college because the money runs out. $5,000 won’t pay for every book and every late-night pizza, but it helps. It won’t help anyone if no recipients can be found. That would make the trade a shame all the way around.