There is no "I" in "Team"

Well, that was thrilling, wasn't it?

A breath of October in the air, a chance to both (officially) clinch the division AND win 100 games, the return of Giancarlo, and our old warhorse, CC Sabathia, on the mound.

Uh-oh.

All the good vibes melted away tonight as CC turned in what has become very much his usual start: 2 1/3 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks, 2 earned runs, and a very quick hook before the game got completely out of hand.

Par for the course.  This year, CC has not managed to average 5 innings a start.  He has become an "opener" without meaning to.

Nonetheless, he got a good hand from the Bronx faithful, and Michael Kay praised him to the skies:  "Eleven terrific years!  Surely on the best free agent purchases the New York Yankees ever made!  Tied for fourth in postseasons wins in franchise history!"

Stop it.

Eleven terrific years?  More like 4 terrific years (2009-2012), two pretty good ones (2017-2018), and one that was all right (2016).  Overall, CC has averaged just over 12 wins a season for your New York Yankees.  In the 6 seasons starting with 2014, he has averaged 6 1/2.

Tied for fourth in postseason wins?  Is there a smarmier statistic?

Yes, he has 8 of them.  Zero in the World Series, which ties him with Mike Kekich, Bill Burbach, and Ross Ohlendorf.  Lifetime, he has a 4.31 ERA in October, compared to 3.73 in the regular season.

One of the Yanks' best free agent signings?  Yes—and no.  The first time was great.  The second was an unmitigated disaster, $23 million a year to pitch worse than any of the numerous alternatives the Yanks might have entertained.

Look, I have to admit:  I like CC, too.  What's not to like?  He was (one of the) guys responsible for what is our only ring of this brave new century and promises to be so for the foreseeable future.

And in return, we made him one of the richest people in the history of the world.

As a New York Yankee, CC Sabathia has made around $225 million.  If he has had any kind of decent financial advice, he's now a billionaire.

Well, good on him.  And what has he given us in return?

Certainly not what you would think would be the minimum for a professional athlete, which would be some sense of obligation to get into some kind of physical and emotional shape.  Instead, he hit upon the strategy of barking at people when they dared to bunt on him because he was too fat and hobbled to field his position.

And what an inspiring season this one was for CC, huh?  As the team battled magnificently to overcome one injury after another, CC set his sites on clearing those statistics that would help get him into Cooperstown.

It's not that he's a drag on the team.  He's worse.  For years now, CC has served as a convenient rationale for why the Yankees could not afford to get the pitching it needed to win—and the rationale for why HAL tells himself he can never risk a big money contract like that again.

I know, I know.  They offered the money.  You won't catch me turning down any $23-million-a-year contracts.

But I can't help thinking about how DiMaggio—then the highest paid player in the game—walked away from another year after he had his worst season in the bigs, but primarily because a Dodgers scouting report was leaked detailing all the ways in which he had declined.

Joe walked away rather than embarrass himself, and that was even after he'd had a World Series in which he drove in 5 runs in as many games.  CC, by contrast, won't throw a significant pitch in this postseason, no matter what happens.  But he's still along for the ride.

Well, we can't all be Joe DiMaggio.  But here we are again, with another CC farewell sucking all the air out of the room and I have to say I'm glad it's the last one.

There may not be an "I" in "team," but there sure is one in Sabathia.