Sheff in business
Ex-Yankee and Met Gary Sheffield has partnered with New York lawyer Xavier James in the player representation business.
“Gary is the CEO who will work with clients and advise them,” said James, an NYU graduate who teaches a sports business class at the school where he received his law degree. “I will negotiate the contracts.”
The James Group LLC has submitted the paperwork to be certified by the players union and signed pitcher Jason Grille as its first client.
“Gary had agents and then started representing himself,” James said. “I wanted him to leverage that know-how. We want to advise players in a different way, more of a holistic way during their careers and beyond baseball.”
Sheffield: “I am not looking to step on any agent’s toes. I want to raise the bar.”
* Sheffield’s uncle, Dwight Gooden, will be a celebrity bartender Tuesday night at Sofrito, co-owned by Carlos Beltran.
$traw-some effort
Darryl Strawberry spent more than three hours signing autographs, taking photos and raising money during ICAP’s Annual Charity Day Wednesday in Jersey City on behalf of Tuesday’s Children. ICAP, one of the world’s premier brokers, raised $19 million worldwide for more than 200 global charities, including Tuesday’s Children, which Strawberry represents.
“I know the Mets have been heavily involved in helping the police, firefighters and families from 9/11,” Strawberry said. “I couldn’t say no.”
Other notables on hand included Giants coach Tom Coughlin, Jim Brown and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Other charity All-Stars during the giving season:
* Mariano Rivera and the Dominican Foundation will be assisted by Hank’s Yanks, the youth baseball team sponsored by Hank Steinbrenner, in distributing toys today to the children of Washington Heights.
* Ken Griffey Jr. signed baseballs for excited fans Monday night at SNAP on 14th Street.
* Brook Lopez, Damion James, other Nets and mascot Sly will join Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz in delivering toys to 100 children affiliated with The Salvation Army tomorrow at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
* Rangers’ Michael Del Zotto helped unveil a free eight-week youth hockey and nutrition program for kids in the NYC region at the Al Smith Recreation Center. . . . Chris Drury and Michal Roszival delivered coats to children at PS 161.
Shannon got ’em paid
Bill Shannon, the longtime New York Major League Baseball official scorer and sports historian who will be memorialized Tuesday (11 a.m.) at St. Paul’s Chapel on the campus of his beloved alma mater Columbia University, was also a member of the Jets stats crew since their inception as the Titans.
“I’m pretty sure Bill told me he missed only three Titans/Jets games ever, two in 1964, one in 1965, and those due to military service,” said Jordan Sprechman, Shannon’s longtime friend, fellow scorer and associate on the Jets stats crew since 1981. “His best stories revolved around what a nasty drunk [owner] Harry Wismer was, but Bill always wanted it known that without Wismer, the AFL never would have made it.”
Wismer (a well-known broadcaster instrumental in the AFL’s first television contract, with NBC) was influential in getting United Press International to give equal status with NFL games to AFL games, and the Associated Press quickly followed.
“Bill framed a bounced check for $15, I think from 1962, signed by Wismer,” Sprechman said. “After that, Bill would go to the box office before the game to take cash gate receipts so the stats crew could be paid.”
That check is among the artifacts that Shannon and Sprechman put in storage for their yet-unfulfilled dream of a New York sports museum. Shannon died in a West Caldwell, N.J. House fire on Oct. 26 at age 69.
Son of Lombardi
Vincent Lombardi, on his legendary father from last night’s HBO documentary “Lombardi”:
“Oftentimes he would come home fairly late at night, distracted, pull into the wrong driveway and walk into the wrong house. Physically, he’d be home, mentally he was always somewhere else.”
And: “He had a temper he didn’t control very well, and was a perfectionist. As a coach, those are pretty good qualities, as a parent, not necessarily so.” . . . The smashing Broadway play “Lombardi” is offering items ranging from coffee mugs to a new picture book signed by the cast, all available at LombardiBroadway.com.
Shot ‘Felt’ familiar
Raymond Felton’s bounce-around-the-rim-and-drop game-winner against the Raptors on Wednesday brought back fond memories of his last-second, Game 5 runner that beat the Heat in the 1999 playoffs by Allan Houston.
“When I saw it, I smiled because it reminded me of my shot,” said Houston, now the Knicks’ assistant GM. “When I got back into the locker room, all the ballboys and locker room attendants said to me, ‘He got that Allan Houston bounce,’ “ Houston said.
Cosell’s Lennon quandary
Iconic New York radio DJ Ken Dashow recalls the effect John Lennon appearing on Monday Night Football in 1974 to promote his new “Walls and Bridges” album had on Howard Cosell.
“I remember reading that Howard did not want to announce John’s death (Dec. 8, 1980) — not because he didn’t think it was important, on the contrary — what was the point of broadcasting the last three seconds of the Patriots game after telling the world that John Lennon was dead?” Dashow said. “Cosell was, for the most part, a pompous, verbose and self-aggrandizing broadcaster; but I always felt, at that sad, mind-shattering moment, Howard was at his best.”
Blue ho, ho!
’Tis the season inside the Giants locker room. Rookies or practice squad players are responsible for the holiday decorations.
Guard Mitch Petrus and center Jim Cordle adorned the offensive line meeting room. RB Charles Scott decked out the defensive back room. Some of the first-year players asked their girlfriends to help. with the adornments. The colorful lights and tinsel also made their way out to the locker room, as strings of lights hang over the lockers belonging to long snapper Zak DeOssie and kicker Lawrence Tynes.
There is even a fancy electric Menorah standing in backup QB Sage Rosenfels’ locker. Rosenfels, whose father is Jewish, has no idea how it got there. . . . Game Time Watches is offering 30-percent-off discounts on any Jets or Giants watches purchased through SNY’s TheJetsBlog.com and GiantsFootballBlog.com.