Where Are They Now?............Gregg Jefferies

The man who once was The Next Great Met and the player Davey Johnson thought could hit .300 standing on his head is "just Gregg" now, the affable high school coach who also runs his own baseball school.
"I'm busier now than when I played," Gregg Jefferies says during a break from his work at Total Players Center in Pleasanton, Calif., the town about 90 minutes outside Sacramento where he lives and also coaches the Foothill High varsity. "I teach hitting and see a different part of the game. We've got a 10,000 square foot facility. My high school team was 20-5 last year after going 12-12. I really enjoy working with the kids."
Jefferies, now 41, has kids of his own, too - 15 and 13, from a previous marriage, a 16-month-old with his wife of four years and another child on the way. He's turned down big-league coaching jobs because "I'm happy," he said. "It's flattering, but I don't want to be away."
Jefferies was the much-hyped hitter who the Mets were eager to get to the major leagues in the late 80s after he was twice the minor-league player of the year, though they were unsure where he'd play. He made his major league debut at 20 in 1987 and ultimately replaced Wally Backman at second base.
But he had a tumultuous tenure, marred by unmet expectations. He was criticized by teammates and fans and in 1991 read an open letter on WFAN asking for an end to the turmoil.
He was traded that winter to the Royals with Kevin McReynolds in the Bret Saberhagen deal and, he says, never got to accomplish what he wanted to in New York. But he was an All-Star twice with the Cardinals in 1993-94. His career ended in 2000 after parts of 14 seasons when he tore his right hamstring, an injury he still feels when surfing or walking up steep hills.
Now, though, Jefferies mostly holds good memories of being a Met, so much so that he and his wife nearly named their son, "Shea" (they opted for Luke instead). "We went to New York two years ago and I was a little leery of the response I'd get, but when I walked around, it was nice," Jefferies says. "People were doing double takes and coming up to me."
Looking back on his career, Jefferies says, "There was stuff I wouldn't have changed and stuff I would've. I would've loved to have won the World Series. I was spoiled on the Mets in 1988, getting to the playoffs that early.
"I broke in early; I had some immaturities. I had a temper and I wish I had learned to tone that down. I did later. But I had a great time in New York. It gave me my name."
Asked if his career might have been different had Met teammates treated him differently, Jefferies says, "Yeah, it could've. It was a veteran team. I blame nobody. I was a young kid replacing Wally Backman not long after a World Series. I could understand the resentment. When I got a little older and learned the game and put up some years, when I played against those guys, they were very friendly."
Jefferies laughs when he's asked why when he threw a bat he was perceived as a baby and, since then, players like Paul O'Neill have been seen as "warriors." "When I stopped, I got criticized for not caring," Jefferies said. "But when I did it in St. Louis, it was the Paul O'Neill thing - look, Jefferies cares.
"I was always very fiery. I had to be because I wasn't good enough to just throw the bat out there. Did it hurt me sometimes, being an emotional player? Yeah. But people tell me now that I always played hard and that they loved the intensity. It's always like that - the longer you're retired, the better player you were."