CC Sabathia has joined the illustrious group of former Cleveland Indians that have left town only to find pay dirt in the bigger baseball meccas of Major League Baseball. It looks as if CC is close to signing a 6-year contract with the Evil Empire for an estimated $160 million dollars. If this holds true, he will join future Hall of Famers, Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome as Tribe All Stars that left town after their first decade of baseball for the bigger dollars.
At first glance we want to hate CC for a horrible choice, but when you think about it from a baseball standpoint, he is a member of a very strong player's union that must have pressured CC to take the bigger dollar contract in New York instead of taking less dollars to play on the West Coast, closer to his friends and family.
Same thing happened to Thome. If you will recall, the Tribe thought they had him resigned, but the union pressured him to take the bigger offer from Philly so that he could set the market price and help other players receive bigger contracts as well. Had CC taken a lesser deal, from say the Dodgers, he would have set the bar too low for other free agents and he would have felt the added pressures of the union. It's not like they'd take him out or bust up his knees or anything like that, but they would have made life hell for him professionally I am sure.
I for one am happy for CC. He gave us 8 very good years in Cleveland, won a Cy Young award and developed into one of the top 2 or 3 pitchers in all of baseball. Believe it or not, he has a better record after the same amount of time as recently retired Greg Maddux. No too shabby.
Let us not hate on CC, he has done nothing but play for our Tribe and did it well. How many athletes do we know that have taken out a full page newspaper article to thank fans? (this is exactly what CC did following his trade to Milwaukee)
I will say this though - he is now a hated Yankee. For that he will hear and deserves the jeers and boos. Just remember this CC, it's not you that we in Cleveland will boo, it's just the pinstripes. But in NY, if you don't hold up to your potential and stardom, they don't boo the uniform - that's you that they will skewer. Good luck on that Carston Charles!
1 comment:
Since my post yesterday the reports out of New York has changed. CC's deal is now worth $163 million over 7 year's, with an opt out after 3yrs for CC. This is not official as ESPN reports this morning that they are still hammering out a no trade clause. -ED
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