Former Yankees lefty CC Sabathia's only road block into Cooperstown was car issues

COOPERSTOWN — CC Sabathia was having a much harder time making it to Cooperstown than he did making it into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in the first place.

The first-ballot honoree, wife Amber and their kids started out Thursday afternoon in a pair of vehicles from their home in Alpine, New Jersey. They were about 45 minutes into their drive when trouble struck while trying to hop on Route 17 in New York. Amber’s vehicle wasn’t up for this trip.

And so there was this famous face in New York sports standing on the side of the road with his troupe of Sabathias, party of six. The patriarch called it “an adventure.”

“It was one of those weird things where my wife has a brand new Escalade; we’re driving up here; we stop to get food; everything’s going great,” Sabathia said Saturday when the Hall’s Class of 2025 met the media at Clark Sports Center. “And then we try to get on the on-ramp on 17 and her car stopped. And I’m literally behind her.

“… It was pretty fun because I’m taking pictures. My kids are doing TikToks. And Amber’s in the back like the super-serious person that she is getting everything done. People were honking at us and recognizing us on the side of the road.”

So they loaded up in his Escalade, went back home, got another truck and drove up, arriving at around midnight with a story to tell — about eight hours after their initial start.

Sabathia is part of a troupe of three wearing some New York ties that is set to be inducted Sunday at Clark Sports Center. His former teammate with the Yankees, Ichiro Suzuki, and former Mets closer Billy Wagner will join him. And they will be going in with a couple of late greats, Dave Parker and Dick Allen.

Of course, it was Sabathia who could tell the most New York stories, having been there the longest. That’s why he’s going in with a Yankees cap on his plaque unlike Ichiro (Seattle) and Wagner (Houston).

One of Sabathia’s more interesting stories is that he never wanted to have his New York ties.

After pitching his first 7 1/2 seasons with Cleveland, including his Cy Young season of 2007, and then practically carrying Milwaukee to the postseason with 11 wins during the second half of 2008, the 6-6 lefty moved on to the Bronx.

He signed a seven-year, $161 million deal and stayed for his final 11 seasons. He posted 134 of his 251 wins with the Yankees, earning 19, 21 and 19 victories in his first three seasons. Sabathia also earned ALCS MVP honors in the Yankees’ last championship season of 2009.

“I didn’t want to go to New York as a free agent,” he said. “I’m from Northern California, so I thought I wanted to be close to home. But the first day of free agency, the Yankees offered me a contract, and I tried to ignore it.”

His wife basically told him he couldn’t after Yankees general manager Brian Cashman visited their house.

“All you talk about is you want to win and you want to be a winner and all your different things,” Amber said to her husband. “How could you not want to go to New York? That’s the one place where they try to win every single year.”

“When she put it to me that way,” Sabathia said, “I was born to be a Yankee.”

Ichiro, meanwhile, was born to deliver hits. The first Hall of Famer from Japan made a lot of contact, finishing his career with 4,367 hits over 28 professional seasons, nine in the Japanese Pacific League and 19 with the Mariners, Yankees and Marlins. He had 3,089 of those hits in the majors and batted .311.

The slender 5-11 outfielder came to the Yankees in a trade with Seattle in July of 2012 at age 38, and he stayed through 2014, batting .281 over his 360 games.

“The 2 1/2 years that I was here in New York, it was a great experience,” Ichiro said through an interpreter. “It can be a tough experience also. I would look over at the view of Manhattan and it was almost like, ‘Hey, you don’t belong here.’ It makes you feel that way at times. But it’s an experience that I think you should experience once.”

While Ichiro also made it to the Hall of Fame in one swing on the BBWAA ballot, Wagner made it on his 10th and final try.

He collected 101 of his 422 career saves with the Mets across the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons. Wagner became the first lefthanded relief pitcher to reach the Hall.

As he put it, “After seeing how a lot of guys, like Lee Smith and Ted Simmons, had to wait their turn to get to this point through veterans committees, and how hard it is to get in here, it’s well worth the wait.”