C.C. Sabathia shows he’s a Yankee lifer with recent ejection

To show you what kind of teammate C.C. Sabathia is, he was willing to sacrifice both a $500,000 innings bonus and possibly the last start of his Yankees career for Austin Romine, the catcher in Thursday’s 12-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Sabathia threw at the knees of Rays catcher Jesus Sucre in the bottom of the sixth inning as retaliation for Romine being head hunted by Rays reliever Andrew Kitteredge.  Both benches were warned after the brush-back by Kitteredge, but Sabathia didn’t care about the payday or the sentiment.

Carsten Charles Sabathia is a gamer, and one of the most underrated Yankees of all time.  He has compiled a 128-80 record with the Yankees with a 3.75 ERA.  He’s 6-4 in the postseason and delivered a World Series in his first year with the team.  He deserves to be up there with the likes of Pettitte, Guidry and Ford.

The best part about Sabathia is his fearlessness and willingness to be the clubhouse leader.  He is an extremely loyal teammate, always the first to back up his fellow Yankees, and is not afraid to speak his mind.  A few explicit words were said and a suggestive grab of a certain body part were all Sabathia needed to do to show his teammates that he will always have their back.

Between the camaraderie in the clubhouse that he encourages, to the warmth he greets all rookies with, C.C. Sabathia will be missed greatly if he doesn’t wind up back with the Yankees.  Without him, the Yankees lose one of the great clubhouse veterans in baseball history.

Hats off to you, C.C. for always standing up for what is right even when it doesn’t benefit yourself.  Sabathia has always been a team first guy and this latest incident shows that to the nth degree.  If this was Sabathia’s last appearance as a Yankee, it was surely a memorable one.  Thanks for the memories.