Certainly, you could understand why CC Sabathia is upset about the 2017 ALCS. After all, they were one game away from the World Series, and they lost to a team who cheated.
In that game, Sabathia took the loss after surrendering one run over 3.1 strenuous innings. Earlier in the series, he had picked up the win in Game 3 after shutting out the same Astros team over six innings.
There were far reaching implications for that loss. It would be the last game Joe Girardi managed with the Yankees. In the World Series, Yu Darvish was roughed up, chastised in some corners, and it seemed to take him a few years to get back on track.
In that 2017 season, the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, and really all of baseball were cheated by that Astros team. While they were all cheated, Sabathia seems to be the most vocal and upset.
On his R2C2 podcast, Sabathia said, “So it ain’t no way you can ever tell me…forever in my mind, now, we won the World Series.”
As reported by the New York Post, Sabathia seethed when Justin Verlander joked the Astros are “very technologically and analytically advanced” when he accepted his 2019 AL Cy Young Award.
With all due respect to Sabathia, he needs to take it down a notch. After all, Sabathia has his ring, and like the 2017 Astros it wasn’t exactly clean.
In that 2009 postseason, Alex Rodriguez hit .365/.505/.808, and Andy Pettitte was 4-0 in five postseason starts. A-Rod was caught up in Biogenesis, and Pettitte was named in the Mitchell Report.
Other players from the 2009 Yankees implicated in steroids over the course of their careers were Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, and Francisco Cervelli. Among known users, that’s one-third of the postseason starting rotation, and one-third of the 2009 Yankees everyday lineup.
That 2009 Yankees team left some truly great players in their wake. That includes Vladimir Guerrero and Joe Mauer, each of whom retired without winning a World Series like Sabathia did with that tainted 2009 Yankees team.
Those players didn’t come out screaming they were cheated and that they deserved the ring Sabathia and that 2009 Yankees team won. We also don’t hear Sabathia being contrite about winning that World Series.
No one should expect Sabathia, the 2009 ALCS MVP, to apologize for winning. That goes double when you consider he felt the pain of the Indians blowing a 3-1 ALCS series lead to the 2007 Red Sox who had David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and others.
The overriding point is Sabathia has both benefitted from players cheating, and players cheating has cost him. Despite that, he won a World Series, a Cy Young, and may one day be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
For someone who had such a great career, it’s somewhat surprising how focused and angry he is over losing to that Astros team. That goes double when he’s benefitted and won due to the players around him having cheated.