It was the sweetest kind of summer fling, the kind you wish could last forever while knowing it never will. CC Sabathia and the Milwaukee Brewers were never going to stay together. But for 90 days in the heart of a Hall of Fame career, the man, the moment, the market and the mix made baseball magic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe basically said, \u2018Guys, get on my back, let\u2019s go for a fun ride,\u2019\u201d said Doug Melvin, who traded for Sabathia 17 years ago Monday. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melvin will represent the Brewers in Cooperstown, N.Y., this month for Sabathia\u2019s induction to the ranks of the immortals. He will fly from his summer home in Utah to Detroit to Syracuse, N.Y., then rent a car and drive to the charming, timeless village on Otsego Lake.<\/p>\n
Nobody gets to Cooperstown easily. That is what makes it so special. Sabathia might have gotten there without the 11 victories and 128 strikeouts he collected as a Brewer. But he wouldn\u2019t have had nearly as much fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I left a big impression on Milwaukee,\u201d Sabathia said in January, after the writers elected him on the first ballot. \u201cBut Milwaukee has left a huge impression on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Sabathia, 2008 sits between his Cy Young season with Cleveland and his championship with the Yankees. He won no awards that year and lost in the first round of playoffs. But he earned incalculable karma from the baseball gods.<\/p>\n
Fueled by a fierce and instant bond with his new clubhouse, which included more Black teammates than he\u2019d had since childhood in Vallejo, Calif., Sabathia assumed a bigger workload than any pitcher has undertaken since.<\/p>\n
He won his first start, the day after the trade. He fired complete games in five of his next 10 starts through the end of August. Then, in late September, on the precipice of free agency, Sabathia made his final three starts on three days\u2019 rest. He completed the final one, in Game 162, and the Brewers reached the playoffs for the first time in 26 years.<\/p>\n
For the 2008 season, Sabathia faced a staggering 1,023 batters. No pitcher has faced that many since, and the way the sport has evolved, nobody ever will.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you bring CC up \u2013 although he is going to the Hall of Fame as a Yankee and he\u2019s had a bunch of accolades pre- and post-Milwaukee \u2013 there\u2019s not one negative thing about that name,\u201d said Rickie Weeks, the Brewers\u2019 second baseman then and now their associate manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the fans understood: this is not real, this is not something that\u2019s common for somebody to come in on a contract year and put his arm on the line for an organization that he barely knows to go out and win a game. That\u2019s the best compliment anybody can have as a player, if you ask me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ufeff<\/p>\n
The Brewers were in their fourth year under owner Mark Attanasio, who was eager to reframe the franchise\u2019s reputation. The playoff format offered only one wild card in each league, and the Brewers were tied for it, with St. Louis, on July 7. Melvin was willing to pay more to act early, believing \u2013 correctly \u2013 that extra starts by Sabathia could make the difference.<\/p>\n
He knew Cleveland had hoped to draft first baseman Matt LaPorta the year before, but Milwaukee got him instead. Including LaPorta in the deal got the Indians\u2019 attention, and Melvin also offered pitchers Zach Jackson and Rob Bryson. The final piece would be a player to be named \u2013 Class-A infielder Taylor Green or future All-Star outfielder Michael Brantley, then in Class AA.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow about if we do this?\u201d Melvin said, recalling what he told Indians general manager Mark Shapiro. \u201cIf CC comes over and we get to the playoffs for the first time in (26) years, then you get to pick if it\u2019s Green or if it\u2019s Brantley. And if something happens, if CC gets hurt or it just doesn\u2019t really help us that much, then I get to pick the fourth player.\u201d<\/p>\n
That unusual \u2013 and unofficial \u2013 arrangement finalized the deal. Melvin told Sabathia he could take his time and be ready for a start in six days. Instead, Sabathia reported immediately and started the next day; his red Cleveland spikes had to be painted Brewers\u2019 blue.<\/p>\n
Sabathia would make 10 starts at the stadium then called Miller Park, and eight of them drew more than 41,000 fans. Sabathia was pitching for the city, to be sure, but more deeply for his new teammates. He knew reliever David Riske, a close friend from their days in Cleveland. That helped. So did the makeup of the roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I walked into the Milwaukee clubhouse for the first time, I looked around and couldn\u2019t believe what I saw: five Black faces,\u201d Sabathia wrote in \u201cTill The End,\u201d his 2021 memoir with Chris Smith. \u201cThat may not sound like a big number, but on a major-league roster, it was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabathia wrote that he had, at times, been the only Black player with Cleveland. And while he had plenty of Latino and White friends, like Riske, he did not realize how lonely he had been until arriving in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be Black in America is to constantly be on guard,\u201d Sabathia wrote. \u201cWith the Brewers, for the first time in my baseball life, I could be more at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other Black players on the Brewers were Weeks, infielder Bill Hall, first baseman Prince Fielder and outfielders Mike Cameron and Tony Gwynn Jr. Another, Ray Durham, soon arrived in a trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all still really close,\u201d Sabathia said last spring, at a Hall of Fame event with Fielder and Gwynn. \u201cAnd I only played there for three months.\u201d<\/p>\n