Former Cleveland Guardians ace CC Sabathia has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame after a brilliant career that included stints with the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees.
In Cleveland, Sabathia made the leap from being a thrower to becoming a pitcher in every sense of the word.
The franchise was willing to endure the control issues that plagued him in the early portion of his career and saw him become an ace and win the 2007 AL Cy Young Award.
He also was runner-up to Ichiro Suzuki for AL Rookie of the Year in 2001.
Former Cleveland general manager John Hart, who put together that 2001 team and drafted Sabathia three years earlier, recently spoke about that season.
“The one thing we felt was that this kid was mentally ready. He wasn’t gonna shrink at the moment,” Hart said, via MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM.
John Hart, who drafted CC Sabathia in 1998, remembers the first-ballot Hall of Famer making his debut as a 20-year-old in 2001.@CleGuardians | #ForTheLand | @Yankees | #RepBX | @baseballhall
🔗https://t.co/fGPbvbj8w4 pic.twitter.com/8dIQZ0GlOG— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) January 22, 2025
Hart reminisces that control “was always an issue,” but he knew that Sabathia was MLB-ready.
In that 2001 season, he gave up 95 walks in 180.1 innings.
It wasn’t until 2006 that Sabathia took a sizable step forward with his command.
Hart said that the organization considered waiting to call up Sabathia, but he ended up breaking camp with the team for that 2001 campaign.
He was one of its best starters and helped take Cleveland to the postseason, where it fell to the Seattle Mariners in the AL Division Series.
As a 20-year-old, Sabathia won his first playoff game there.
He went on to enjoy a colorful career, filled with accomplishments and incredible memories.
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