Team Leader: Show Me The Money

So now we all know.

That fat guy sitting next to me at the bar four out of five days, every Yankee home stand, was CC Sabathia.  He was one of those dudes who consumed everything, shots and beer, low balls, high balls, neat or with ice.  He made his bones, of course, drinking Canadian Club.  "CC rocks…it sounds cool."

So let's talk about leadership.

 All the rhetoric supporting the alcohol plagued Yankee pitcher, including the generous statements about how it was more important for him to leave the team and get healthy than it was to fulfill his obligation to them, was royally cheered up and down this years' empty, " Canyon of Heroes."

Enough, I say.  Grace cuts both ways.

If CC is such a team leader, he should give the Yankees their money back, for the last 4 years of crappy work.  We are all sad that he was drinking on the job, every day.  Slinking away during games to take a quick pull on a hidden flask.  Drinking in bars, alone, when the team was on the road.  This guy had $100 million reasons to be seeking comfort in booze.  And we bemoan his pain.

But the reality is;  he bilked and duped the Yankees.  He, in his own scurrilous and
well-plotted ( potted? ) way, totally deceived the Yankees.   The guy was pitching hung-over for four years and , while his perspiration on the mound gave the image of hard work, he was simply sweating out the Rye.  His work product during the last four seasons was pedestrian to mediocre. It was not the work of an Ace.  Not the work of someone paid a fortune to deliver excellence.

It was robbery.

A big man would stand up and admit;  " I deceived you.  You did not get from me the talent and the commitment for which you paid.  And that is why I am writing you ( or some fine charity in NYC ) a check for $50 million.  You held up your end of the bargain, but I did not hold up mine.  So I am returning the money for those years of rotten performance. "

That would be leadership in the locker room.

Anything less from CC is just empty rhetoric.  More selfishness.  More deception and lies.

No pain, no gain.

Show us who you are CC.  Show us the Money.