New York Yankees catcher Austin Romine was swinging his shin guard in the dugout when he heard a loud noise and immediately looked up.
It was CC Sabathia. He got angry.
“My first friend.” Sabathia said.
It was September 27, 2018. Sabathia sought revenge against the Tampa Bay Rays after reliever Andrew Kittredge narrowly missed a 93 mph fastball toward Romine’s head in the top of the sixth inning, with the New York Yankees ahead. -0, Tropicana Field.
He decided to send a message in the bottom half of the inning by hitting catcher Jesús Sucre. He was willing to do so, even if it meant getting ejected and finishing the season just short of the contract incentives that would have earned him $500,000.
Knowing that payday was approaching, Romín took a moment to talk to Sabathia. He knew Sabathia had to pitch seven innings for the bonus to start the game, and the left-hander was two innings shy of that.
“no.” Sabathia said as he walked away. “First friend.”
On Tuesday, the Baseball Hall of Fame is expected to announce whether Sabathia was enshrined on the first ballot.
Voters in the Baseball Writers’ Association of America weighed all the statistics and accolades when considering Sabathia’s resume. They considered him their ace when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, a feat the team hasn’t accomplished since. They earned the 2007 American League Cy Young Award with the Cleveland Guardians and recorded 3,093 strikeouts, 251 wins and six All-Star appearances during his 19-year career. And some may still be in awe that Sabathia saved the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2008 playoff run by sitting out his final three starts of the season for three days.
But what voters couldn’t quantify was the tremendous impact he had on his teammates and the respect he earned throughout the game.
Sabathia has never been more on display on the public stage than at the final start of 2018.
Sabathia pointed at Kittredge in the Rays’ dugout after hitting Sucre’s butt and getting kicked out, losing his $500,000 bonus, and TV cameras could read his lips.
“That’s for you, bitch.”
It seemed like a shocking move at the time. He threw just 54 pitches in five innings and was cruising along, dotting both sides of the plate with his signature slider and handcuffing right-handed hitters with the cut fastball that revived him late in his career. He won’t get another opportunity to earn incentives during the regular season.
But that wasn’t a surprise to Romine and coach Aaron Boone.
Throughout the game, the Rays howled that Sabathia hit Jake Bowers in the hand after throwing a ball inside the dugout.
When Romine fell to the dirt to avoid Kittredge’s fastball, he asked catcher Sucre a simple question: “Why?”
For Sabathia, there was no question what should happen next. He had to protect his teammate, even though home plate umpire Vic Carapazza had already issued warnings to both dugouts.
While Romine was dusting himself off, Sabathia left the Yankees’ dugout to shout at the Rays. Boone grabbed him and carried him to the dugout.
Throughout the process, Boone asked Sabathia not to retaliate. He knew it was a useless request.
“I remember thinking, ‘Okay, let’s not let him throw it at anyone in here,’ and knowing in my head that he didn’t think he was listening to me here,” Boone said.
Sabathia’s fastball to Sucre was the fastest he threw all night at 92.5 miles per hour.
“It says a lot about what an old school baseball player he was and the type of baseball player he came up with,” Romine said. “No one is throwing anything at your men, especially at their heads. I think it really sparked something in him. I would never say it was about me. It was about his team. It was about his catcher and his team being thrown and he was the one protecting his team throughout his career. Throwing the ball to the backup catcher on the 9th hole, that’s it. You’re not going to throw the ball to three- or four-hole hitters.”
“This is the type of guy you want to fight with,” Aaron Judge said at the time.
“I don’t think I make decisions based on money,” Sabathia said after the 12-1 win. “It just felt like the right thing to do.”
Romine played as Sabathia’s teammate for eight seasons. He said Sabathia was the de facto captain of the Yankees clubhouse, and the respect Sabathia received from opponents was unlike anything he had ever seen.
“He’s still generally the only player that leadoff hitters come up and tip their hat to opposing managers,” Romine said. “Well, they’ll do that and CC will sit in that water cooler and the leadoff hitter will tip their hat to CC. “It was funny the whole time.”
“He is poised to be inducted into the Hall of Fame because of his outstanding performance on the mound, the numbers he has put up and his accomplishments,” Boone said. “But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who has played with him and isn’t at the top of the list of all-time teammates. He really is a connector. It’s easy to relate to. Easy to talk to. Made you feel important. Despite his personal struggles, he lived for the team.
“It’s the same with great people, and Judge is a bit like that. I think there’s an underlying confidence that they know they’re going to get theirs and do well. So they don’t care about it at all. It’s about winning and the team and they live it. CC continued to live it.”
At the end of the season, the Yankees gave Sabathia a bonus. Even though he came up a little short due to the red card.
“The grand scheme of things and the $500,000 career he had, it didn’t matter to him,” Boone said. I just don’t care. His first job was to be a teammate – a good teammate. The competitive part of things.
“In the end, it just added to the legend of CC.”
(Top photo of Sabathia after being ejected against the Rays in September 2018: Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
