New York Yankees catcher Austin Romine was strapping on his shin guards in the dugout when he heard a booming voice and immediately looked up.
It was CC Sabathia. He was angry.
“First guy,” Sabathia said.
It was September 27, 2018. Sabathia was out for revenge against the Tampa Bay Rays after reliever Andrew Kittredge aimed a 90 mph fastball at Romine’s head and narrowly missed in the top of the sixth inning with the New York Yankees leading the way. 7 -0, at Tropicana field.
He decided he was going to hit catcher Jesús Sucre to open the bottom half of the inning to send a message. He would do it, even if it meant getting ejected and ending the season right before a contract incentive that would have paid him $500,000.
Romine was aware of the approaching payday and tried to talk Sabathia out of it. He knew Sabathia had to throw seven innings entering the game for the bonus, and the lefty was two innings shy.
“No,” Sabathia said as she walked away. “First guy.”
On Tuesday, the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce whether Sabathia has earned the first round of voting.
When voters at the Baseball Writers’ Association of America considered Sabathia’s resume, they weighed all the stats and accolades. They believed he was the ace when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, a feat the team hasn’t accomplished since. They noted his 2007 American League Cy Young Award with the Cleveland Guardians, plus his 3,093 strikeouts, 251 wins and six All-Star appearances over his 19-year career. And some were probably still impressed that Sabathia saved the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2008 playoff run by making each of his final three starts of the season on three days’ rest.
What voters couldn’t quantify, however, was the enormous impact he had on his teammates and the respect he garnered during the game.
Never was this more visible on a public stage than during Sabathia’s last start of 2018.
After Sabathia forfeited the half-million dollar bonus by throwing Sucre on the butt and getting thrown out, he pointed to Kittredge in the Rays dugout and TV cameras could read his lips:
“That’s for you, bitch.”
At the time it seemed like a shocking move. He had thrown just 54 pitches in five innings, and he was cruising, dotting his trademark slider on both sides of the plate and handcuffing right-handers with the sliced fastball that resurrected him late in his career. He would not get another chance to achieve the incentive in the regular season.
But it wasn’t a surprise to Romine and manager Aaron Boone.
All game long, the Rays had been chirping from their dugout at Sabathia for throwing in and then hitting Jake Bauers on the hand.
When Romine sank to the dirt to avoid Kittredge’s fastball, he had a simple question for catcher Sucre: “Why?”
For Sabathia, there was no doubt about what should happen next. He had to protect his teammates, even though home plate umpire Vic Carapazza had warned both dugouts.
As Romine dusted himself off, Sabathia left the Yankees dugout to yell at the Rays. Boone stopped him and walked him to the dugout.
Boone also asked Sabathia not to take revenge. He knew it was a useless request.
“I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, let’s not throw him at anyone here,’ and knowing in my head that I don’t think he’s listening to me in this place,” Boone said.
The fastball Sabathia hit Sucre with was 93 miles per hour – the fastest pitch he threw all night.
“It speaks volumes about the old-school baseball player he was, and the type of baseball player he created,” Romine said. “Nobody’s throwing at your guys, especially at the head. I think that really sparked something in him. I’m never going to say it was about me. It was about his team. It was about his catcher and about his team being thrown, and he has been the guy who has protected his team throughout his career. You throw to the nine-hole backup catcher, and that’s one thing. You’re not going to throw to three- and four-hole hitters.”
“That’s the type of guy you want to compete with,” Aaron Judge said at the time.
“I don’t really make decisions based on money, I guess,” Sabathia said after the 12-1 win. “I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”
Romine played parts of eight seasons as Sabathia’s teammate. He said Sabathia was a de facto captain in the Yankees clubhouse, and the respect Sabathia received from his opponents was unlike anything he had ever seen.
“He’s still the one guy that leadoff hitters usually come by and point their hat at the opposing team’s manager,” Romine said. “Well, they would, and CC would be sitting on that water cooler, and the first batter would tip his hat to CC. It was funny to see.”
“He’s getting ready to go into the Hall of Fame because of his excellence on the mound and the numbers he’s put up and the things he’s done,” Boone said. “But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone he ever played with who probably didn’t put him at the top of the all-time team-mate list. He is such a connector. Easy to deal with. Easy to talk to. You felt important. Lived for the team because of his own personal matters.
‘The great ones are like that, and Judgey is a bit like that too. I feel like there is an underlying confidence that they know they will get theirs and do it well. So they don’t really even care. It’s about winning and the team, and they live it. CC has experienced it again and again.”
At the end of the season, the Yankees gave Sabathia the bonus, even though the lockout meant he fell just short.
“The big picture,” Boone said, “and the career he had, the $500,000, he didn’t care. It just didn’t matter. His first thing was being a teammate – being a great teammate. The competitive part of things.
“In the end, it only added to CC’s legend.”
(Top photo of Sabathia after his ejection against the Rays in September 2018: Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)