CC Sabathia remembers being awed by his first visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., saying he still gets goosebumps when he thinks about those hours wandering through the plaque gallery several years ago.
“That was the first time I really, really thought about it,” Sabathia said. “I was like, ‘Damn, I really want to be in the Hall of Fame.’ I never thought about being in the Hall of Fame when I was playing, but going up there, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, this is cool.’”
Sabathia’s next visit will come as an inductee. One of the fiercest workhorses of his generation, Sabathia was a six-time All-Star, Cy Young Award winner and World Series champion who received a new title on Tuesday: first-ballot Hall of Famer. Sabathia appeared on 86.8% of the ballots, easily surpassing the 75% threshold necessary for election.
Over a 19-year career with the Cleveland Indians (2001-08), Milwaukee Brewers (2008) and New York Yankees (2009-19), Sabathia established a reputation for consistency, highlighted by 251 victories and 3,093 strikeouts. Sabathia hurled 3,577 1/3 innings across 561 Major League contests, surpassing the 200-inning threshold eight times.
“It means a lot to be in the Hall of Fame, period,” Sabathia said. “But first-ballot, I know what that means as a baseball player. It’s very special.”
One of just 15 pitchers in Major League history to notch at least 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts, Sabathia is only the third left-hander to accomplish the feat, along with Hall of Famers Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson.
Sabathia said Tuesday he plans to enter the Hall with a Yankees logo on his plaque, calling the Bronx his “home.”
“Throughout his time in pinstripes, he embodied the best of what it means to be a Yankee,” said Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner. “I offer my wholehearted congratulations to CC and his family on his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.”
Said former captain Derek Jeter: “During my career with the Yankees, I had the honor of playing with so many talented players. No player exemplified a Hall-of-Fame player and person more than CC Sabathia. His career on the field speaks for itself, but it’s his career as a teammate that stands out the most. I look forward to welcoming CC to Cooperstown.”
Drafted by Cleveland in the first round of the 1998 MLB Draft as a high schooler from Vallejo, Calif., Sabathia set the tone for his durability early, firing 180 1/3 innings as a 20-year-old rookie in 2001 (he finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting to the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki, now his teammate in the Hall of Fame Class of 2025).
Sabathia made his first two All-Star teams in 2003 and ’04. He was the American League’s Cy Young Award winner in ’07, when he posted a 19-7 record and a 3.21 ERA in 34 starts. That year, Sabathia paced the Majors with 241 innings, 975 batters faced and a 5.65 strikeout-to-walk ratio (209 to 37), breezily besting Josh Beckett of the Red Sox as the circuit’s top hurler.
