A baseball great mentored one of 49ers’ 2026 draft picks. It repaid a kindness
Gracen Halton had made it further than many football players by his freshman season at University of Oklahoma, but things weren’t going as he hoped.
As a true freshman in 2022, he didn’t have a lot of opportunity to show what had made him a four-star recruit out of high school.
One person who offered reassurance: his godfather and nine-time Major League Baseball All-Star Gary Sheffield, who’d forged a friendship with Halton’s father Buford Halton Jr. 30 years before.
“He didn’t play right away and he was getting frustrated, but we kept telling him, ‘Your time is going to come,’” Sheffield said in a phone interview with The Sacramento Bee.
The San Francisco 49ers selected Gracen Halton, a defensive tackle, April 25 during the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft, with the 107th overall pick. Quietly, Sheffield played a role in helping his godson reach this point. Sheffield was in a position to help. But it also gave him a chance to repay what Buford Halton Jr. did for him many years before.
How Buford Halton Jr. helped Sheffield become an MLB star
Major League Baseball, and professional sports in general, is an insular world. It’s not hard to find people who know one another, with limited degrees of separation even across different sports.
For Buford Halton Jr., his connection with Sheffield started with the fact that another standout baseball player of the era, Kevin Mitchell, went to high school in San Diego with his older brother. “I used to carry his cleats,” Buford Halton Jr. said of Mitchell.
Mitchell eventually made the majors with the New York Mets, where one of his teammates was ace pitcher Dwight Gooden. In time, Buford Halton Jr. met Gooden, who is Sheffield’s uncle.
Sheffield was drafted sixth overall by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1986, made the majors two years later and initially had mixed success with the team. While he blossomed into a .294 hitter in 1990, Sheffield regressed to a .194 batting average the following year and was traded in the offseason to the San Diego Padres.
Mitchell, who’d grown up around street gangs in San Diego, looked out for Sheffield when he was traded to the Padres, putting people around him who’d help him succeed.
“When I linked up with Buford, then that’s when he knew I was in good hands,” Sheffield said.
Sheffield said he met Buford Halton Jr. through then-San Diego Chargers running back Marion Butts. Buford Halton Jr. remembered seeing Sheffield at a party. . Sheffield later reached out to Buford Halton Jr.
“He ended up calling me and was like, ‘I’m from Florida. You seem to know San Diego pretty well. Can you show me around?’” Buford Halton Jr. said. “So we hooked up, we’ve been friends ever since.”
Sheffield said that friend showed him places to eat, gave him advice on places to go — and, perhaps more importantly, not go, protecting him. They would talk through things.
In San Diego, Sheffield blossomed into a star, hitting .330 and finishing third in voting for National League MVP in 1992.
Asked if his friendship with Buford Halton Jr. had anything to do with him becoming a star, Sheffield replied: “It had everything to do with it.”
Sheffield would go on to hit 509 home runs for his career, becoming one of the best hitters of the 1990s and 2000s.
His Hall of Fame case has been marred by his admission he unknowingly used a performance enhancing substance later in his career. He topped out under the necessary 75% of the vote for Cooperstown from the BBWAA in 2024, getting 64%.
A mentor for Gracen Halton: ‘We poured into him’
The Florida Marlins (now the Miami Marlins) traded for Sheffield midway through the 1993 season, though that didn’t end Sheffield’s connection to San Diego or his friend.
While he played for six teams after leaving the Padres and was in the American League at times, the advent of interleague play meant that Sheffield could get to San Diego regularly on road trips.
When Gracen Halton was born in 2004, Sheffield made an offer to Buford Halton Jr.
“I told him, ‘I’ll be the godfather and we’ll make sure he turns out to be what he needs to be, whether that’s football or going to school and being whatever. We just got to keep our kids on the right path,’” Sheffield said.
Sheffield saw his godson twice a year when his team came to San Diego, though there was opportunity aside from this to meet up. Once, the Haltons traveled to Los Angeles to see Sheffield and his wife DeLeon Richards, a gospel singer, who were in town for the Grammy Awards.
Buford Halton Jr. said his son was around Sheffield as a young child. “Just putting him in that environment where he seen how professional athletes and stuff operated and everything, I think it really helped him out,” Buford Halton Jr. said.
Sheffield said that Gracen Halton listened and “wanted to be great, and so we poured into him.”
From a young age, what Gracen Halton was interested in was football. His father had played tight end for Cal State Fullerton in the late 1980s. And by age 5, Gracen Halton had attended a camp in San Diego hosted by former 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia.
That Gracen Halton didn’t gravitate toward baseball was of no great disappointment to his godfather. Sheffield has had the same outlook with his children.
“You can’t force kids to be something that they don’t want to be,” Sheffield said. “We always take the approach whatever they show interest in, they support, and that’s our motto.”
Gracen Halton, measured officially for this year’s draft at 6-foot-3 and 293 pounds, was always large for his age. He played football at St. Augustine High in San Diego and became a clear top prospect his junior year, Sheffield said.
After initially committing to University of Oregon, Gracen Halton shifted to Oklahoma after Mario Cristobal left Oregon to coach University of Miami. Sheffield advised his godson to stick with Oklahoma, telling him Miami wouldn’t have the same background and connections, Buford Halton Jr. said.
Then, when Gracen Halton was upset about lack of playing time as a freshman for the Sooners, Sheffield emphasized to him that whoever was in front, it was their time, but that things could change quickly.
“I said, ‘When it’s not your time, you have to focus on stacking days and getting better,’” Sheffield said. “And that’s what he did.”
In a collegiate era, where many players — including some fellow 49ers draftees this year — have played for two or three schools, Gracen Halton remained at Oklahoma all four years of his college career.
“He went through the whole process of fighting his way in the lineup, and then he became a standout player,” Sheffield said.
What Gracen Halton could do with the 49ers
Sheffield sees going to the 49ers as “the best-case scenario” for his godson and that good things could be coming in his career.
“He has everything it takes to be a great football player,” Sheffield said. “He’s put the hours in, the work in, to be that. And I told him, ‘As you get older, you’re going to get stronger and smarter and then you’ll fit right in.”
Sheffield also said that Gracen Halton was intelligent, able to apply what he learned and that he loves football. “When you put all of that together, you have the perfect ingredients for success,” Sheffield said.
Buford Halton Jr., a Dallas Cowboys fan, also sees his son fitting in well on the 49ers. He noted that San Francisco general manager John Lynch went to high school in the San Diego area. He also seemed pleased that his son would get to work with new 49ers defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.
“They’re going to be able to utilize all his tools and stuff and get the best out of him,” Buford Halton Jr. said.
Gracen Halton, who didn’t respond to interview requests, could be a welcome addition to a 49ers defensive line that struggled mightily in 2025 after five-time Pro Bowler Nick Bosa was lost to season-ending injury.
Gracen Halton can run a 4.82-second 40-yard dash. Buford Halton Jr. said that with his son’s size and speed, he could potentially play like former Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald.
Asked what his godson would need to do to be successful as a professional football player, Sheffield said it was about not just being a good player, but a smart one.
“This is no longer little boy football,” Sheffield said. “This is big boy stuff now. You’re getting paid to do it and people got expectations. And when you go out there now, it’s all about learning your position, learning what they’re teaching you and going out and applying it on the field.”
