CC Sabathia will officially become a Yankee Thursday afternoon, and the supersized lefty brings supersized expectations with them. The lack of a true ace starter has been a problem for years, and Sabathia finally gives them one. The expectations don't stop there, though.
William Rhoden of the Times says that the Yankees aren't just plugging a hole in their rotation, they are plugging a hole in their soul. He writes of Sabathia's advocacy for African-Americans in baseball, his good nature, personality and passion. All of those things may be true, but Sabathia isn't here to win a Nobel Prize.
He's here to win baseball games. His left arm is what will do that, not his generous spirit or his friendly nature. Chemistry may be the most overrated thing in sports, something many members of the 1977 and 1978 World Champions would be glad to tell you. Those outside the team like to make a point of how much players like each other, but when teams of cold professionals, think the Spurs, or debauched miscreants, the '86 Mets, win titles it doesn't seem to matter all that much. Those teams, and most other champions, won because their pieces fit well on the court/field.
It's not even limited to those outside the game. The former Red Sox Kevin Millar seems to intimate that the Yankees have been missing that in recent years.
“That team can play, but something’s missing,” he said. “When you play against them and you look over there — other than they didn’t pitch very well — something was missing."
That's right, it wasn't that Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson and Jaret Wright spit the bit, it was that they didn't make their teammates feel warm and cuddly inside. It's not a lack of athleticism and defense, it's that the Yankees don't have enough team bowling outings.
Rhoden's paean to Sabathia is well-intentioned, but it's unconvincing. The Yankees haven't won a World Series since 2000 because of the way they've played the game, plain and simple.
