Later today, Carsten Charles (CC) Sabathia enters the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a New York Yankee. Mike Lupica in the New York Daily News put it best:
“The Yankees aren’t celebrating a championship in 2009 if CC Sabathia hadn’t been the ace of the staff. … He was a great Yankee, one of the best left-handed pitchers they have ever had or will ever have, the ace of the staff, a true ace of his sport, on the last Yankee team to win the World Series. It was a Series they had no chance of winning without him. In every way, CC was there when they needed him. … He retired with a won-loss record across 19 seasons of 251-161 for the Indians, Brewers and Yankees. His lifetime ERA was 3.74. Whitey Ford, the greatest Yankee starting pitcher of them all, won 236 games in his own amazing career, all of them with the Yankees. CC wasn’t in pinstripes as long as Whitey, or Lefty Gomez, or Andy Pettitte, or Ron Guidry. He still goes in the conversation about the best pitchers the Yankees ever had.”
Lupica also notes, poignantly, that CC’s road was a long and sometimes painful one, as he battled alcoholism. His road to recovery began in 2015. “Such a great baseball story for the big man, in so many ways. He always took the ball, in Cleveland and Milwaukee and at Yankee Stadium, until the day he couldn’t. Now, arriving at this weekend in Cooperstown so well earned, he has the life he was meant to have, and not just with a baseball in his hand.”
In Sabathia’s career, he was the 2007 Cy Young Winner, had 3,093 lifetime strikeouts, and was a six-time All-Star.
The Hall of Fame ceremony kicks off at 1:30 pm. Hearty congratulations to CC!
Notablog 