Uprooting entire family is a big deal

Imagine this: You come home from work, gather the spouse and kids together in the living room and announce that you've been traded.

You tell them your new employer would like you there tomorrow. And oh, by the way, pack everything. We're moving. Clear across the country. Now.

For most of us, that reality is as difficult to imagine as bringing home a multimillion-dollar paycheck. Yes, baseball players make the big bucks. But that doesn't mean they are immune to the same kind of stresses the rest of us face.

As Sunday's 4 p.m. non-waivers trade deadline approaches, some baseball players are bracing for news that will affect not only their professional lives but their personal ones.

"It's tough," said Yankees ace CC Sabathia, who was traded from the Cleveland Indians to the Milwaukee Brewers on July 7, 2008. "I tried to block it out, but it's hard not to think about it when every time you turn on the TV or 'Sports Center' or every time you're in the clubhouse, somebody's asking you about where you think you're going to go or where you want to go."

But as hard as it was on Sabathia, he said it was tougher on his wife, Amber.

"I think my wife stressed out a little more than I did," he said. "I was still going to the field. I was playing. She was seven months pregnant and we had two kids. We didn't know where we were going until that Friday before I got traded, when I knew I was going to Milwaukee."

Luckily for the Sabathias, CC's best friend is David Riske, then a pitcher on the Brewers. Riske tipped off Sabathia about the impending deal when he saw a Brewers employee stitching the name "Sabathia" on a jersey two days before the trade was announced. Riske's wife helped Amber get acclimated to Milwaukee.

Still, there were challenges.

He needed a place to live in Milwaukee for the season's last three months. His mother flew to Cleveland to watch the kids while CC and Amber went to Milwaukee. Three days later, the parents were reunited with their children in temporary digs.

The whirlwind task of getting everyone settled obviously didn't affect Sabathia on the mound. He went 11-2 to lead the Brewers to the playoffs before signing a $161-million contract with the Yankees and moving -- this time permanently -- to New Jersey.

At least Sabathia has been traded only once. Mets leftfielder Jason Bay has been traded four times -- twice on deadline day.

In 2002, Bay had just been acquired by the Mets in a minor-league deal when he was dealt to the Padres on July 31 as part of a five-player trade. He made his big-league debut in 2003 but was shipped to the Pirates (along with a pitcher named Oliver Perez) in August of that year.

Bay established himself as a run-producer in Pittsburgh, enough so that he was traded to Boston on July 31, 2008, as part of a three-team deal that sent former Boston icon Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers.

Replacing Ramirez was pressure enough. But Bay's wife, Kristen, was eight months pregnant. The couple already had a 11/2-year-old daughter.

"I was in Pittsburgh," Bay said. "They told me at like 4:30. I talked to . He said, 'Hey, I know you got a family, you got things to do . . . If you need to take a day, I understand.

"I said, 'What do you want me to do?' And he said, 'We'd really like you here tomorrow.' I said, 'I understand. I'll be there.' My wife was like, 'There's nothing you can do to help me. Go.' "

A single ballplayer living in an apartment can just "put your bag down, pick it up and go," as Sabathia put it. But for married players such as Bay, there's a little more to it if they don't want to be separated from their families for the rest of the season.

"We had a house in Pittsburgh with all our stuff," he said. "She said, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of it.' I packed my bag like I was going on a road trip -- a long road trip."

The Bays found some temporary housing in Boston and Kristen set out to find a new doctor -- remember, she was a month away from giving birth.

"She looked for a doctor through the Red Sox," Bay said. "Anyone. Nice to meet you. And then a month later we had the baby. That stuff doesn't bother my wife. It's incredible. By the third [child], she's like, I just need somebody here. Someone to catch the baby."

Most players who get traded at the deadline know they are on the block. Some, such as Carlos Beltran, have a say because of a no-trade clause.

Lance Berkman, for example, had to approve last July's trade from the Astros to the Yankees. So did his wife, Cara, and their four daughters.

Not only were they on board, but "the girls all had Yankees stuff and they were definitely Yankee fans for that length of time," said Berkman, who now is with the Cardinals.

"I can't speak to everybody's family," he said. "But if they're like mine, they really get into the competition just as much as I do. My wife is always talking about the game and she's excited when we win, upset when we lose. From that standpoint, everybody in my family was really excited to be going from a situation where we obviously weren't going to be in contention to where you have a chance to go play in the playoffs and World Series.

"Obviously, there's uncertainty with the logistics of it. But most people who have played baseball for any length of time are used to that type of thing. Heck, when you're in the minor leagues, I was in Kissimmee, Fla., then Jackson, Miss., then New Orleans, and my wife was with me all along. So you're used to sort of, 'Oh, where are we going to be? It's going to be here today.' "

With David Lennon