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It’s two hours before the phone call only one percent of MLB players ever receives, and CC Sabathia, at his home in Alpine, is still the most relaxed person in the room.
Ever the genial host, Sabathia is warmly greeting guests to his home, posing for photos, laughing that booming, signature laugh that echoed in big league clubhouses through 19 seasons.
By early evening, a party of close friends and family was gathered in Sabathia's living room when his wife Amber's cell rang. Placed on speaker, Jack O'Connell, secretary of the Baseball Writers' Association, delivered the anticipated news.
On his first ballot, five years after throwing his final big-league pitch, CC Sabathia was headed to Cooperstown. "Thank you,'' said Sabathia, smiling as the crowd around him burst into cheers and applause.
What does one of baseball’s best left-handed pitchers want to do next, after making the Hall of Fame?
“Get good at golf,’’ said Sabathia, 44, punctuated by a roaring laugh that could shake loose the icicles outside his front door on this frigid, memorable late January day.
Sabathia never expected to become a New York Yankee when he entered free agency in 2008 as the game’s most coveted starter.
He’d never pitched with thoughts about Cooperstown until the very end of his career, with statistical milestones in reach and friends pointing out his place among the game’s greats.
“To win every single time out, to take the ball…to be that good teammate and be there for the guys -that’s all I ever wanted,’’ said Sabathia. “And that’s gotten me to this place.’’
In congratulating Sabathia on his Hall of Fame election, the statements of former teammates and Yankees executives struck a familiar tone.
“He was such a gamer…and he was always there. He made himself available to everyone,’’ catcher Jorge Posada said of the 6-foot-6, 300-pound ace of the staff and team organizer, arranging dinners and springing for suites at NBA games, inviting all.
“He was such a great connector in the clubhouse,’’ said Joe Girardi, his first Yankees manager. “And he brought teams together.’’
“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone he played with who didn’t consider him one of the best teammates and fiercest competitors they ever shared a clubhouse,’’ said current Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
That tells Sabathia’s Cooperstown story beyond stats, though a chat with MLB Network host and ex-player Harold Reynolds after the 2017 AL Championship Series put the numbers in perspective.
“It was such a tough loss, I was so down and out that I was ready to retire,’’ Sabathia said of Houston’s seven-game ALCS win, later to be tainted by the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
But Reynolds called Sabathia and mentioned “how close I was to 250 wins, and how important it was,’’ Sabathia said. “He started talking about Bob Gibson and 3,000 strikeouts and there’s only two Black pitchers (to reach that figure) and you could be the third.
“That’s when I really thought, maybe this is something I can do. That’s what put me over the top to play the next two years.’’
“It’s kind of fitting. I threw until I couldn’t anymore,’’ Sabathia said after Game 4 of the 2019 ALCS, another bitter October loss to Houston.
That night, Sabathia walked off the Yankee Stadium mound to a heartfelt standing ovation, nursing a partly dislocated left shoulder and knowing he’d reached the end.
“It sounds crazy, but I thought it was going to be a lot more pressure,’’ Sabathia said of his Bronx beginning, swayed by GM Brian Cashman’s personal pitch and a $161 million, seven-year contract.
Signed after the 2008 season, Sabathia’s deal was — at that time — the largest ever for a starting pitcher, and the Yankees were coming off their first postseason miss since 1993.
“I put so much pressure on myself already, every day,’’ Sabathia said of his success in Cleveland, arriving as a 20-year-old rookie, winning the AL Cy Young Award at 26, and leading his team to within one win of the 2007 AL pennant.
But in the Bronx, Sabathia wasn’t the lone star in the galaxy.
In Cleveland, “I felt I always had to go out and pitch great for us to win,’’ said Sabathia, suddenly on the same field with Posada, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, not to mention fellow free agent imports Mark Teixeira and AJ Burnett.
“I’d never had a complete team like that, one that was that good, and it took a lot of pressure off,’’ Sabathia said of the 2009 Yankees, their last world championship club.
Could the kid from Vallejo, California, playing on rocky fields 35 miles north of Oakland, ever have imagined an MLB career that eclipsed his pitching idol, Dave Stewart?
One that included 251 wins and 3,093 strikeouts, more than any lefty in baseball history except Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton?
Well before his Hall of Fame call, Sabathia renovated several of his youth fields through his PitCCh Foundation, trying to grow a game that has seen dwindling numbers of African Americans in MLB.
Sabathia reached the majors in 2001, when the league was comprised of 12 precent African Americans.
That number shrunk to six percent in 2024.
“It’s become a country club sport,’’ said Sabathia of the funding required for elite travel teams.
“The reason I played baseball was that all my friends were able to play. I traveled everywhere with my friend group,’’ but today “kids are getting plucked out of their communities and getting put on these different teams and it makes it hard.’’
Had he come up in that environment, singled out for his talent and separated from his hometown, Sabathia says he probably would have quit baseball.
As a director for the Players Alliance, focused on improving diversity throughout baseball via scholarships, clinics, equipment upgrades and field restorations, Sabathia is an agent for change.
MLB’s decreasing African American participation is “something I was always aware of, and now being outside and having a chance to affect change is meaningful to me.’’
The goal is for communities like Sabathia’s in Vallejo to “keep their teams together (to) play in these tournaments with their friends’’ and maintain that bond through high school.
Leading up to his Cooperstown call, Sabathia was often reminded of his trade deadline move from Cleveland to Milwaukee in 2008, how he carried the Brewers to their first postseason since 1983.
Imagine any starter, about to become the subject of a major free agent sweepstakes, risking himself today as Sabathia did that late summer — tossing seven complete games, often pitching on three days’ rest.
“But it was just the most fun,’’ said Sabathia, who went 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in 17 starts, and became the toast of Milwaukee.
“It was something I wanted to be a part of for a long time,’’ said Sabathia. “I didn’t want the season to end.’’
By the midpoint of his Yankees years, injuries and the innings toll had forced a change in Sabathia’s style; he’d adapted from a hard thrower to a crafty lefty and embraced another pinstriped challenge.
So, there was no debate about Sabathia’s Cooperstown plaque depicting him in a Yankees cap for all-time, though his New York-New Jersey story is one he never anticipated.
“Even as a free agent, everybody knows, I never wanted to come here. I didn’t want to play for the Yankees,’’ said Sabathia, who had preferred a California team.
Cashman’s personal pitch, leaving the Las Vegas Winter Meetings to visit the Sabathias at home, included an opt out clause after the third year.
“I’m still here, raising a family,’’ said Sabathia of his wife and high school sweetheart, Amber, and their four children. “I’ll never leave this city. It’s the best decision I ever made in my life.''
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: CC Sabathia Hall of Famer: Our profile of the former New York Yankee
Continue reading...
Ever the genial host, Sabathia is warmly greeting guests to his home, posing for photos, laughing that booming, signature laugh that echoed in big league clubhouses through 19 seasons.
By early evening, a party of close friends and family was gathered in Sabathia's living room when his wife Amber's cell rang. Placed on speaker, Jack O'Connell, secretary of the Baseball Writers' Association, delivered the anticipated news.
On his first ballot, five years after throwing his final big-league pitch, CC Sabathia was headed to Cooperstown. "Thank you,'' said Sabathia, smiling as the crowd around him burst into cheers and applause.
What does one of baseball’s best left-handed pitchers want to do next, after making the Hall of Fame?
“Get good at golf,’’ said Sabathia, 44, punctuated by a roaring laugh that could shake loose the icicles outside his front door on this frigid, memorable late January day.
Sabathia never expected to become a New York Yankee when he entered free agency in 2008 as the game’s most coveted starter.
He’d never pitched with thoughts about Cooperstown until the very end of his career, with statistical milestones in reach and friends pointing out his place among the game’s greats.
“To win every single time out, to take the ball…to be that good teammate and be there for the guys -that’s all I ever wanted,’’ said Sabathia. “And that’s gotten me to this place.’’
The consummate teammate
In congratulating Sabathia on his Hall of Fame election, the statements of former teammates and Yankees executives struck a familiar tone.
“He was such a gamer…and he was always there. He made himself available to everyone,’’ catcher Jorge Posada said of the 6-foot-6, 300-pound ace of the staff and team organizer, arranging dinners and springing for suites at NBA games, inviting all.
“He was such a great connector in the clubhouse,’’ said Joe Girardi, his first Yankees manager. “And he brought teams together.’’
“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone he played with who didn’t consider him one of the best teammates and fiercest competitors they ever shared a clubhouse,’’ said current Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
That tells Sabathia’s Cooperstown story beyond stats, though a chat with MLB Network host and ex-player Harold Reynolds after the 2017 AL Championship Series put the numbers in perspective.
“It was such a tough loss, I was so down and out that I was ready to retire,’’ Sabathia said of Houston’s seven-game ALCS win, later to be tainted by the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
But Reynolds called Sabathia and mentioned “how close I was to 250 wins, and how important it was,’’ Sabathia said. “He started talking about Bob Gibson and 3,000 strikeouts and there’s only two Black pitchers (to reach that figure) and you could be the third.
“That’s when I really thought, maybe this is something I can do. That’s what put me over the top to play the next two years.’’
An easy transition to the Yankees
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“It’s kind of fitting. I threw until I couldn’t anymore,’’ Sabathia said after Game 4 of the 2019 ALCS, another bitter October loss to Houston.
That night, Sabathia walked off the Yankee Stadium mound to a heartfelt standing ovation, nursing a partly dislocated left shoulder and knowing he’d reached the end.
“It sounds crazy, but I thought it was going to be a lot more pressure,’’ Sabathia said of his Bronx beginning, swayed by GM Brian Cashman’s personal pitch and a $161 million, seven-year contract.
Signed after the 2008 season, Sabathia’s deal was — at that time — the largest ever for a starting pitcher, and the Yankees were coming off their first postseason miss since 1993.
“I put so much pressure on myself already, every day,’’ Sabathia said of his success in Cleveland, arriving as a 20-year-old rookie, winning the AL Cy Young Award at 26, and leading his team to within one win of the 2007 AL pennant.
But in the Bronx, Sabathia wasn’t the lone star in the galaxy.
In Cleveland, “I felt I always had to go out and pitch great for us to win,’’ said Sabathia, suddenly on the same field with Posada, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, not to mention fellow free agent imports Mark Teixeira and AJ Burnett.
“I’d never had a complete team like that, one that was that good, and it took a lot of pressure off,’’ Sabathia said of the 2009 Yankees, their last world championship club.
Striving for diversity, inclusion in baseball
You must be registered for see images attach
Could the kid from Vallejo, California, playing on rocky fields 35 miles north of Oakland, ever have imagined an MLB career that eclipsed his pitching idol, Dave Stewart?
One that included 251 wins and 3,093 strikeouts, more than any lefty in baseball history except Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton?
Well before his Hall of Fame call, Sabathia renovated several of his youth fields through his PitCCh Foundation, trying to grow a game that has seen dwindling numbers of African Americans in MLB.
Sabathia reached the majors in 2001, when the league was comprised of 12 precent African Americans.
That number shrunk to six percent in 2024.
“It’s become a country club sport,’’ said Sabathia of the funding required for elite travel teams.
“The reason I played baseball was that all my friends were able to play. I traveled everywhere with my friend group,’’ but today “kids are getting plucked out of their communities and getting put on these different teams and it makes it hard.’’
Had he come up in that environment, singled out for his talent and separated from his hometown, Sabathia says he probably would have quit baseball.
As a director for the Players Alliance, focused on improving diversity throughout baseball via scholarships, clinics, equipment upgrades and field restorations, Sabathia is an agent for change.
MLB’s decreasing African American participation is “something I was always aware of, and now being outside and having a chance to affect change is meaningful to me.’’
The goal is for communities like Sabathia’s in Vallejo to “keep their teams together (to) play in these tournaments with their friends’’ and maintain that bond through high school.
'The best decision I ever made'
Leading up to his Cooperstown call, Sabathia was often reminded of his trade deadline move from Cleveland to Milwaukee in 2008, how he carried the Brewers to their first postseason since 1983.
Imagine any starter, about to become the subject of a major free agent sweepstakes, risking himself today as Sabathia did that late summer — tossing seven complete games, often pitching on three days’ rest.
“But it was just the most fun,’’ said Sabathia, who went 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in 17 starts, and became the toast of Milwaukee.
“It was something I wanted to be a part of for a long time,’’ said Sabathia. “I didn’t want the season to end.’’
You must be registered for see images attach
By the midpoint of his Yankees years, injuries and the innings toll had forced a change in Sabathia’s style; he’d adapted from a hard thrower to a crafty lefty and embraced another pinstriped challenge.
So, there was no debate about Sabathia’s Cooperstown plaque depicting him in a Yankees cap for all-time, though his New York-New Jersey story is one he never anticipated.
“Even as a free agent, everybody knows, I never wanted to come here. I didn’t want to play for the Yankees,’’ said Sabathia, who had preferred a California team.
Cashman’s personal pitch, leaving the Las Vegas Winter Meetings to visit the Sabathias at home, included an opt out clause after the third year.
“I’m still here, raising a family,’’ said Sabathia of his wife and high school sweetheart, Amber, and their four children. “I’ll never leave this city. It’s the best decision I ever made in my life.''
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: CC Sabathia Hall of Famer: Our profile of the former New York Yankee
Continue reading...
