C.C. Sabathia smiles as he looks out at dozens of young Clevelanders, grades 1-8, fielding grounders, working on pitching mechanics and hitting dingers at his namesake field in Cleveland's Luke Easter Park.
"Baseball is a fundamental game," says the Cleveland baseball legend. "This, right here, is the base of the game. When you learn these skills right here, this takes you all the way through to big league."
Donning black basketball shorts and a white Air Jordan T-shirt, Sabathia is back in town on this hot August Sunday morning for the CC Sabathia PitCChin Foundation Baseball ProCamp Powered by Kaulig Giving. The field, installed in 2019 in conjunction with the All-Star Weekend festivities, is top-notch with covered dugouts, bleachers, astroturf and a fenced-in bullpen.
Watching the action on the turf, Sabathia calls Cleveland a second home. After all, it's the place where him and his wife, Amber, started their family and their life together when Sabathia got called up to the big leagues at just 20 years old.
"It's been a dream of me and Amber to give back to the communities we not only grew up in but played in, and we feel like we did both," says Sabathia. "We grew up here and we played here, so it feels good to be back."
Seeing a new generation of athletes drill and scrimmage and work on the fundamentals of the game on his namesake field hits him somewhere special. Some baseball fans talk about the game not quite being what it used to be. Sabathia's not one of them. Working with the young athletes on the field, he preaches those fundamentals. But back in foul territory, he praises the modern game. The recent rule changes, such as pitch clock to speed up games and new regulations around shifting defensive players, have led to the increase in attendance and viewership this season, he says.
"The way the game is being played has changed a lot with the rule changes," he says. "If you look at the game this year, you've got a lot of more guys hitting over .300 this year."
When asked if he thinks he could have handled the new rules, the six-foot-six athlete, looking much slimmer than in his playing days, responds with that signature Sabathia confidence.
"I think would have been fine," he says. "I worked fast. You know, I always wanted to try to get into that rhythm."
Since retiring in 2019, the Cy Young-winning pitcher has happily assumed the beat of being a baseball dad. His son, Carsten, is a sophomore and first baseman at Georgia Tech. Sabathia has spent his recent summers watching Carsten compete on the diamonds of Martha's Vineyard, where the big man still has fair share of differences with the boys in blue.
"I always like yelling at umpires," he jokes.
But he doesn't miss playing baseball.
Sabathia "gets his fix" for the pro game by working with MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. in an advisor role with his office. The six-time MLB All-Star also hosts the R2C2 podcast with Ryan Ruocco, which saw its season finale in July, and the MLB Network Showcase: Clubhouse Edition, where he offers a more casual alternative to the traditional broadcast of big games.
"You'll never see me in the booth in the traditional suit and tie calling a game," he says. "The way I do games with the Clubhouse Edition is like what I do on a regular basis with my friends, so to bring that to TV is pretty cool. I don't have to change anything. What you see is what you get."
Being back in Cleveland conjures up some great memories for Sabathia. Whenever he comes back to town, he stops at Dave's Cosmic Subs, his longtime favorite Cleveland eatery, and he always tries to catch a game. Today, getting to enjoy Progressive Field as a fan, instead of Jacob's Field as a pitcher expecting to perform, has given the place a new meaning.
"Having a chance to sit down ballpark and watch a game as opposed to it being so stressful pitching in the game is always a lot of fun," he says.
When he looks at this year's Guardians club, he sees similarities to his own call-up to the big leagues. After injuries to starting pitchers Shane Bieber and Tristan McKenzie, Cleveland's 2023 starting rotation has relied on youngsters like 24-year-olds Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibbee. Throwing his first big-league pitch at 20 years old, Sabathia was the youngest player in the MLB in 2001, when he finished second in voting for the AL Rookie of the Year and competed in post-season action.
"Cleveland always does a great job of developing pitchers," says Sabathia. "It was a little different when I was coming up because I was the youngest guy in a rotation full of vets. Once Cliff (Lee) and (Jason) Davis came up, we were in the same position of trying to figure out who is going to be the ace."
Thinking back to those times, Sabathia does get a little wistful. Not for the games or the adulation, but for the friendships he made in Cleveland. Though he keeps in touch with teammates like Victor Martinez, whose son Victor Jose is close friends with Sabathia's son, there's no way to replicate the magic and camaraderie of navigating those early years in professional sports.
"You take it for granted," he says. "Victor Martinez, Grady Sizemore, Ben Francisco, Casey Blake — these are the guys that I grew up with. When you're young, you think this is going to last forever."
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