If, a few years from now, CC Sabathia is standing on a stage behind the Clark Sports Complex in Cooperstown, New York, delivering a speech on Induction Day, many will point to a moment this past season that kind of encapsulated what he is all about.
It happened at Tropicana Field on Sept. 27. The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays were meeting, with not-quite-nothing at stake. The Yankees were trying to put the wraps on home-field advantage for the American League wild-card game, while the resurgent Rays had already been eliminated.