Gary Sheffield likened his experience with the Belmont Heights Little League program to playing for the New York Yankees.
Why? Because playing for championships was the standard in Sheffield’s Tampa, Fla., neighborhood when he was younger. Belmont Heights Little League was founded in 1968. Four teams from the program have made trips to the Little League World Series.
It’s been 45 years since Sheffield and his teammates played in the 1980 Little League World Series. It was the first of back-to-back appearances for that Belmont Heights team, which lost to Taiwan in the championship game both years.
“It was the most important part of my life that your dad and mom can’t help you with,” Sheffield said. “This is preparing us for the world, the battles and the circumstances that we’re about to face in the real world.”
The collection of talent on that 1980 team was special, even for a program that has produced multiple major-league players — among them Dwight Gooden and Carl Everett. The 1980 squad included five players who were drafted by a major-league team.
Sheffield, a catcher for Belmont Heights, was the No. 6 pick in the 1986 MLB Draft and would become a nine-time All-Star. He also became a World Series champion with the 1997 Florida Marlins.
And then there were his Belmont Heights teammates. Derek Bell, who played right field, was a second-round pick for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987 and won the World Series with the Blue Jays in 1992. Greg Hornsby, a center fielder for Belmont Heights, was a 27th-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986.
Ty Griffin, Belmont Heights’ shortstop, was chosen by the Chicago Cubs as the No. 9 pick in the 1988 draft. After starring at Georgia Tech, Griffin was an infielder for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team that placed first in Seoul. (Baseball was a demonstration sport that year, meaning no official medals were awarded for competition.)
There was also Maurice Crum Sr., who was drafted in baseball but found more success on the football field. Crum, a reserve utility player for Belmont Heights, was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 39th round of the 1991 draft. Crum’s athletic resume is highlighted by winning NCAA national championships as a linebacker for the University of Miami in 1987 and 1989. (He also played baseball for the Hurricanes.) Crum was a consensus All-American in football in 1990 and saw time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys. He was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
1980: Belmont Heights vs Taiwan
Gary Sheffield – MLB outfielder and third baseman from 1988 to 2009
Derek Bell – MLB outfielder from 1991 to 2001
Ty Griffin – 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist (Team USA – Baseball)
Maurice Crum Sr. – 2 Time NCAA Football Champion (Miami Hurricanes) pic.twitter.com/L17EAfTBcj
— Lefty Loading…. (@4_Ben_Media) August 19, 2025
The 1980 team added to an already-impressive Belmont Heights legacy. The program reached the Little League World Series in 1973 and 1975. Additionally, members of the 1980 and 1981 teams would go on to play in and win the Junior League World Series in 1982 in Michigan.
“We were just having fun competing, trying to be the best that we can be at the time, having no idea where it would lead to,” Crum said. “We just knew after that first year, we loved the publicity and things that came along with it. … Seeing what it means now to the community, that was amazing.”
Even as preteens, the players knew their baseball presence represented something bigger than their neighborhood. Belmont Heights is a predominantly Black community located in East Tampa. The 1980 team featured an all-Black roster, including manager Vernard Felder and coach Monte Edmonds.
Sheffield said their coaches made sure the players understood the assignment each game — which sometimes involved adjusting to and overcoming obstacles that were outside of their control.
“Not only did we have to beat the team, we had to beat the umpires. We had to beat the fans. We had to beat everybody involved that played a factor in the game,” Sheffield said. “We didn’t want the game to be close, because we knew that part of the politics would creep in, and it would cost us a game. We took that to heart.
“So, every time we stepped on the field, we held everybody accountable for doing his job and doing it better than anybody else. That’s what propelled us to be and look at ourselves as the greatest 10-, 11-, 12-year-olds in the world.”
Gary Sheffield won a World Series with the Florida Marlins in 1997. Seventeen years prior, he was the catcher on a Little League World Series contender representing Tampa, Fla. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
Belmont Heights was known for putting runs on the scoreboard. The team scored 39 combined runs in three games during the 1980 Little League World Series. They scored 37 combined runs in three games during the 1982 Junior League World Series.
After qualifying for the 1980 tournament, Belmont Heights opened with a 20-3 drubbing over a team from Pawtucket, R.I. The team advanced to the championship game by dominating Kirkland, Wash., 16-0.
Awaiting Belmont Heights in the championship game was a Taiwan team that hit seven home runs and throttled Canada 23-0 in the semifinal round. Taiwan entered Howard J. Lamade Stadium as a winner of three straight Little League World Series titles and eight of its last 11.
Taiwan took a 2-0 lead early, but Griffin put Belmont Heights on the board with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning. Taiwan led 4-1 in the fourth, but Belmont Heights scored a run in the bottom of the inning. Sheffield opened the bottom of the sixth inning with a double into left field.
Sheffield advanced to third on a fielder’s choice. Two batters later, Bell, who struck out twice before, hit into a fielder’s choice that allowed Sheffield to score from third, trimming Taiwan’s lead to 4-3. But Taiwan pitcher Shuh-Shin Li earned the last of his 10 strikeouts to end Belmont Heights’ comeback efforts.
Playing for Belmont Heights was a community-supported effort. Players will say everyone in the neighborhood chipped in one way or another to make sure no one was left out. It’s one of the reasons why there was so much pride in what the baseball program accomplished.
Crum said his experiences in Little League exposed him to the Police Athletic League, where he continued to connect with sports after stints in the NFL and CFL. Crum recently retired after 29 years of working with the Orange County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office, but he continues to oversee the office’s PAL.
Crum attributes his college experience and career to what started in Belmont Heights, where baseball helped keep youth out of trouble. More than four decades later, he realizes how impressive of a team the program fielded.
“I know guys who have played in the World Series, but I never even thought about it being to that extent,” Crum said. “We did put something together back then, and guys went on to have good careers and good lives.”
Sheffield and Crum ultimately became high school teammates at Hillsborough. Bell, Griffin and Hornsby played at nearby C. Leon King High School. The Little League World Series moments were a foundation for high school rivalries.
“We had major tournaments against each other and ended up being in the (baseball) championship game against each other on the high school level,” Crum said. “Seeing all that happened in ’80, and six, seven years later we’re playing on a high school level, competing against each other in tournaments, it helped us realize that baseball can take us further along in life.”
Crum and Sheffield said they remain in contact with players from the team. Bell last played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2001 and lives in the Tampa area. The coaches, Edmonds and Felder, are no longer living. Kirk Walker, who pitched in the 1980 championship game, and Dallas Brown, the team’s first baseman, also have died.
Even after a decorated major-league career, Sheffield said his time with Belmont Heights was pivotal. The experience, he said, “gave them mental toughness” and allowed them to see what they were capable of. It was an avenue for life lessons taught, which resulted in “a belief system.”
Sheffield lives an active retirement life in Tampa and still supports baseball in urban communities. The Sheffield Family Foundation assists with players on his traveling baseball team.
He believes his experience playing baseball in his community — and having the mindset of a champion at an early age — shaped him and others.
“All of those characteristics you have to have to make it in life: having social skills, being able to look a man dead in his eyes and tell him exactly what it is, and having an emotionally intelligent conversation,” Sheffield said. “That’s what baseball did for us. It taught us all of that, and we wouldn’t have got that in any other place.”
(Top photo: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)