Thank You For Playing Baseball, C.C. Sabathia
I grew up in the shadows casted by the giants of 1990s baseball in Cleveland, Ohio. I grew up wrapped up in the stories that were told, and enamored by the feats on the diamond observed and described by fans that sold out 455 straight games to watch Hall of Famers and all time greats. As I got older I learned to revere and remember the names of Jim Thome, Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, etc. amongst many other great baseball players on the Cleveland Indians baseball teams of the late 1990s. Even though my only memory of them are highlights and recaps, they still impacted me.
Luckily, I got to see C.C. Sabathia, one of my childhood heroes. Seeing a black pitcher, and an elite one that has been a recognizable name almost twenty years step on the mound every five days for my hometown team during his prime is something I will always cherish. It isn’t common to see black position players play the infield or outfield regardless of where in the African diaspora they happen to be from, and seeing black pitchers and black catchers is even less common. I am truly lucky and happy to have seen someone like me have so much prosperity and success in a sport that isn’t popular for people like me as it once was.
C.C. Sabathia carried my fandom of the Cleveland Indians and my attention to the sport of baseball on his broad shoulders during the early and mid 2000s. The huge presence of the 6’7’’ lefty on the mound is one of the reasons I am still a baseball fan now at the age of 21. Still a child and nowhere near close to adolescence. I cried my eyes out when we traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008, not understanding why he had to leave and put on a different uniform. I was jealous when he won a championship in pinstripes alongside Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez in 2009 as a member of the New York Yankees.
Today, almost ten years later, I am happy I got to witness a legend and an all time great. Thank you C.C. Sabathia for an illustrious career. As a young African-American man that has lived his whole life in Cleveland, Ohio, your impact on me throughout your whole career in Cleveland and beyond is something I will never forget or let go of.
