The Red Sox won't meet up with CC Sabathia until Game 3 of their three-game set at Yankee Stadium. But when they do, they had best beware.
Sabathia is on a mission.
The goal? Win one more ring and then call it quits to a stellar and unexpectedly altered career.
It's hard to root against something like that, especially when one realizes that Sabathia stands as the anti-Matt Harvey.
The man already has near Hall-of-Fame worthy hardware with a World Series ring he won with the 2009 Yanks and the Cy Young Award he won with the Indians in 2007, not to mention the longevity of an 18-year career spent mostly as one off the game's most deadly fireballers.
The numbers and glittery objects are not what makes him so easy to root for, however. It's how he has handled the ups and downs of his life. He has never bought into the woe-is-me stuff, even as he waged battles against alcohol, the personal demons who led him to the bottle, and an arthritic knee that had more than one scribe writing him off in 2014.
But here he is in 2018, a different person and different pitcher. And his journey is worth taking note of. If nothing else, perhaps Harvey should have taken a page from Sabathia's book and changed both personally and professionally.
It wasn't easy. The optics were hardly optimum when Sabathia left the team on the eve of the 2015 postseason and entered a rehab center to treat an alcohol problem that had festered for three years. Sabathia wasn't a public drinker, but when a shouting match with a fan outside a Toronto nightspot hit social media, it served as a warning sign that something was off with the affable lefty.
Sabathia hid nothing, explaining his plight the day he checked into the center. He was remorseful. And his teammates stood behind him despite the hole he left in the postseason rotation.
MORE: Sabathia Says He'll Retire If Yankees Win World Series This Year
Teammates and management can forgive one who admits his shortcomings. There are situations where one must put himself above the team. It's when a teammate wanders off to a celebrity party knowing he might well pitch the next day that things get touchy. As the Harvey situation shows, they're not so lenient about that.
Another lesson Harvey might have learned, but obviously hasn't, lies in the merits of adjustment.
The constant bark in Sabathia's right knee in 2015 could easily have ended his career. A power pitcher's strength comes from the legs. If he doesn't have them, it's batting practice.
But old CC adjusted. It took him a while to get the mechanics down, but he went from fastball/slider to crafty. Heading into his seventh start of 2018, the record sits at 2-0, 1.39 with 23 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings. And who could argue with last year's 14-5, 3.69 mark that he followed with an 0.96 ERA in a win and a loss in the ALCS against Houston.
That's pretty close to vintage CC, but he's getting it done in different ways now.
Contrast that with Harvey, not yet 30 but suffering mightily from the after-effects of Tommy John and Thoracic Outlet surgeries. Yet, he still thinks he's a power pitcher. He'll no doubt take that belief with him to his next stop, be it San Francisco, Seattle, Texas, Cincinnati, or whoever signs him after his release.
Be assured, though, it won't be the Yanks. Nobody needs that kind of distraction when the only real criticisms lie with Dellin Betances' inconsistency and Gary Sanchez' passed balls.
Sabathia, meanwhile, rolls on. He's 37. The knee still gets cranky. But he's sober and pitching well, having given up one run in 23 1/3 innings over his last four starts.
All he wants is one more championship to complete his personal requiem. With 15 wins in their last 16 going into last night's Red Sox opener, the Yanks might be on their way to granting Sabathia's wish for a ring, and then a ride into the sunset.
Knowing how he has conducted himself, it's hard to root against that.
Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino
