Ft. Lauderdale, FL -- DeLeon Richards married a man who might end up with his own plaque in Cooperstown. When you do that, you probably should like baseball at least a little bit.
"I do actually do like it now," says Richards, a.k.a. Mrs. Gary Sheffield, with a laugh.
"But I was not a baseball fan before I met him. I grew up in Illinois on the Northern side, so I should have been a Cubs fan, but I was the type that came late and left early. I'd always get tickets and just sit out there for the camaraderie."
She's a Detroit Tigers fan these days, of course, and she's also a successful gospel singer with a career on the rise.
Her latest album, Here In Me, is a popular 11-track collection of inspirational songs, and she's also released a concert DVD, "DeLeon Live," highlighted by her most popular songs, including "Move On Up The Mountain" and "I Shall Wear a Crown."
It's the continuation of a remarkable musical life that began at age 9, when she became the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Grammy Award and performed for President Ronald Reagan.
In 1986, she signed with a major record label and began appearing all over television and in films, and in 1990, she landed a regular role on TV's "Brewster Place" alongside Oprah Winfrey.
Throughout her music career, she has shared stages with Patti LaBelle, Shirley Caesar, Lou Rawls, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Yolanda Adams, Al Green and many others.
And now she has a new interest: baseball.
"I do understand the game now," she says. "I actually watch baseball. I can watch it on TV, even if it's not Gary playing. Of course it makes it more interesting when I'm watching him out there -- half the time I'm sitting on the edge of my seat praying he does well.
"But I can watch other games and kind of enjoy it. It is America's favorite pastime, after all."
Richards says her favorite thing to watch, not surprisingly, is when her husband hits a home run.
"I love to see him swing, really," she says. "His swing is so intense, so when he connects and the ball soars out, those moments are great."
Another great baseball moment came when she was asked to sing the National Anthem at a playoff game at a packed Yankee Stadium when Sheffield was a member of the Bronx Bombers.
"It was definitely magical," she says. "The atmosphere was very intense and the people were already rooting."
And, she admits, it was slightly scary.
"It was a little nerve-wracking in the sense that here's my husband, here's his team, here I am, and I'm just thinking that I can't possibly have one bad note to where he would go back in the clubhouse and get ragged by his team," she says.
"Plus, it's not the easiest song to sing. You start in the wrong key and it's over."
Meanwhile, Sheffield sings all kinds of songs, too, and he's often in the right key, believe it or not.
"He's pretty eclectic in his taste," Richards says. "He has a wide range in his repertoire, from Marvin Gaye to Al Green. Sometimes when we're in the car alone, riding down the highway, he's the one performing and giving me a concert."
But when Sheffield is walking up to the batter's box getting ready to hit against a flame-throwing Major League pitcher, he doesn't have DeLeon's songs playing on the stadium JumboTron, and his wife understands why.
"He's an aggressive player at the plate, and the teams pick songs that represent that," she says. "My music is more calming. It's about peace.
"He says he needs something that has anger."
Posted By: Minister Celeste Kelley
Friday, September 26th 2008 at 8:26AM
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