CC Sabathia prepares to take the ball for fifth Opening Day start with Yankees

Major League Baseball Update/ News

The New York Yankees ace veteran starter CC Sabathia is hopeful for his fifth Opening Day start of 2013 Major League Baseball season with the franchise where he has been playing for almost four years.

“I think I’m the same as I was when I came in here,” Sabathia said. “It’s been definitely fun. I’ve enjoyed my time here, being in this organization and being part of the Yankees family, but I think I’m the same.”

Along with preparations for the new season, Sabathia recently talked in detail with some sports journalists and shared his memories with them.

Sabathia believes that all those years, he felt a great relief especially since his time started with the Yankees in 2009. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was very confident in December 2009 when he signed Sabathia as free agent.

“To me, I felt like [Cashman] was talking about the clubhouse and guys getting along,” Sabathia said. “Obviously we had the talent here for many years and just couldn’t get the chemistry together.”

Sabathia further explained that during the time of his arrival in the Yankees, it was very difficult to say that we were an ideal unit. However with the passage of time and experience we all especially seniors including Nick Swisher, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira decided to push the team towards another level.

“I think adding Swish, A.J. with the pies, myself, Tex — I think it was just kind of a little culture change — a little bit — and it’s just been working out,” Sabathia said.

He added, “The chemistry is great in here, This team gets along. We have a lot of fun, and it’s been kind of the same core for the last couple of years. We know what to expect out of each other, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Sabathia, who is considered one of the most feared pitchers in Major League, now saying that the 2013 season will be another tough one for the Yankees and the team needs to perform like a one unit.

“It’s getting the season started,” Sabathia said. “You want to get off on the right note. You want to set the tone and try to pitch well. I’ve had good ones and I’ve had bad ones, so it’s just the nerves and the anticipation of Opening Day. This is an exciting time. It’s fun to be a part of it.”

Sabathia did a wonderful job in the last season for the Yankees. He finished the season on a high note and achieved good numbers of 3.38 ERA along with 15-6 win loss, 197 strikeouts and 1.14 WHIP.

“I definitely feel a relief, just having that range of motion back and not having that ache at the end of my extension,” Sabathia said. “I felt that right away, so hopefully I can just continue to get better and continue to feel less. After last year, going through what I went through pretty much the whole second half, playing catch so far, it feels a lot better.”

He added, “Thirty starts, I’m just trying to make all my starts and make sure I stay healthy. After having the season I had last year, being on the DL a couple times, getting a little older, I just want to concentrate on staying healthy. Any kind of numbers I feel will be there if I’m healthy, so that’s the only thing I’m worried about.”

Experts believe that the recent interview and answer questions session of Sabathia shows that he is still very much capable of bringing the Yankees once again another World Series title.

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Posted by Umair Hassan on Mar 30 2013. Filed under Latest News, Sports, USA, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.