Indians: CC Sabathia will always be an Indians legend, no matter what

The former Indians and Yankees ace, CC Sabathia, will take part in a bizarre and ill-advised telecast during the Indians and Yankees series. He alongside former Tampa Bay star Carlos Pena and Hall of Fame Braves pitcher John Smoltz will work with host Stephen Nelson for an MLB Network exclusive broadcast that will be dubbed the “Clubhouse Edition.” It’ll be similar to the poorly received Players Only broadcast that TNT did for the NBA and stopped doing.

Turns out, no one wanted to hear untrained commentators talking about nonsense during a broadcast of a sproing event. Now the MLB is doing the same thing. Why?

The one good thing is that it brings back Indians legend Sabathia into the team’s stratosphere again. For a long time before his debut, the Indians struggled with pitching, especially starting pitching. The oasis of arms the Tribe now enjoys is a far cry from the poverty-stricken rotation of the late 90s and early 00s.

Bartolo Colon was really the team’s first great home-grown starter in a long time. He was soon followed by Sabathia, an even better pitcher.

Sabathia made three All-Star games during his seven and a half seasons in Cleveland and won the 2007 AL Cy Young Award; helping kick off a run of award winners that few teams have seen since the Braves of the mid-90s.

Sabathia was everything a pitcher needed to be for the team but as it is with all small markets like Cleveland, he was eventually traded due to the unfair free agency system that baseball has allowed to exist for generations.

That trade, however, helped set the Indians up for the future. The team got back prized prospect Matt LaPorta, who did absolutely bupkiss in the Majors. They also got back Zach Jackson and Rob Bryson who were equally as impressive. The last player to be included in the trade was that of a tag-on, last-minute edition inclusion. That player ended up being future Tribe legend, Michael Brantley.

Sabathia not only started the trend of the Indians award-winning aces, like Cliff Lee, Corey Kluber, and Shane Bieber, but he also inadvertently showed fans that trading away aging players could help keep a team in competition for far longer than any one single player could.

His legacy with Cleveland will always be a fond one and when it’s all said and done, his number 52 should ultimately be retired by the Tribe.