Posted by Jeff Lubbers on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 4:50 pm

The Detroit Tigers have sure made their last week of Spring Training an interesting one. One day after revealing that Dontrelle Willis has an anxiety disorder the team dropped Gary Sheffield a mere six days before Opening Day.

For a Tiger fan base unsure of a 2009 season that could include anything from a playoff appearance to a complete fire sale, the sight of Gary Sheffield becoming the first player to hit his 500th home run in a Detroit uniform was at least a minor highlight to look forward to. Instead Sheffield’s 500th home run will be his first with his new team, assuming that he signs with an organization he has not played for previously (which seems likely). For that reason and a variety of others his 500th home run is likely to be an odd event.

First and foremost the occurrence of Sheffield’s 500th will have a different feel to it than that of the previous 24 milestones because he will be the first to join the club while presently dealing with allegations of steroid use.

But Sheffield also differs from others in the club because of the way he has bounced around the league. Of the 24 players currently in the 500 Home Run Club, eight of them hit their first 500 home runs with a single organization. On the other hand only four players hit less than 100 home runs for the team they were playing for at the time of their 500th home run, including Reggie Jackson (75), Jim Thome (70), Frank Thomas (13) and Eddie Mathews (7). Often a player’s 500th home run is as much of a celebration of their longevity with their team, although that is less true with recent players. But it is definitely not true in Sheffield’s case.

Assuming Sheffield hits his 500th home run with a new team he will have played on eight different teams by the time of his 500th home run. Currently none of the 24 players in this club have played with more than 4 organizations by the time number 500 occurred (Reggie Jackson and Eddie Murray each played with 4 teams). Additionally, none of the 24 players have played on more than 5 organizations throughout their entire career (Frank Robinson and Eddie Murray each played with 5 teams total).

Of all 24 players who have hit 500 home runs they played for an average of 2.1 teams when they hit their 500th and 2.7 teams over the course of their entire career. Sheffield’s 500th will be with his 8th team and it is feasible he could play for more teams after that. He has bounced around the league so much throughout his 21-year career that he isn’t really associated with any single team. In fact, he has hit more than 100 home runs for only the Dodgers (129) and Marlins (122) (see table below).

For all of these reasons Sheffield’s 500th home run will not have anything close to the pomp and circumstance previously reserved for such a rare occasion. If Sheffield’s 500th home run ball is auctioned off as a souvenir it will be lucky to fetch one tenth of the $500,000 paid for Eddie Murray’s 500th. Fans may be suffering from “500 Home Run Club fatigue,” with four players hitting their 500th in the last two seasons. What was once a dramatic occasion has become almost routine.