Carsten Sabathia, the son of former Cleveland pitcher CC Sabathia, is off to Georgia Tech to begin his own baseball career.
Hope you’re ready to feel old!
Carsten Sabathia, who you might have guessed is the son of former Cleveland pitcher CC Sabathia, is off to college, committing to play baseball for Georgia Tech.
The 6’4″, 240-pound 18-year-old, who is still known as “Little C,” is a first baseman and, according to his dad, “has power to all fields.” As you can imagine, Carsten grew up around baseball clubhouses, so it’s certainly no surprise that he’s following in his father’s footsteps. In Cleveland, Carsten played T-ball as a toddler and Slider even came to his fourth birthday, though there are no stories on whether Slider got too drunk and caused a scene – yet.
As Guardian fans know, Sabathia spent eight seasons in Cleveland (well, 7 1/2 really), before he was traded to Milwaukee in 2008. He won the Cy Young during the team’s 2007 ALCS run, and would finish his Cleveland career with a 3.83 ERA in 237 starts with 1,265 strikeouts and a 115 ERA+
But it’s really New York where Carsten grew up, ingrained in a World Series-winning culture. Lindsey Adler’s piece in The Athletic (linked above) notes that then-manager Joe Girardi encouraged players to bring their kids around as much as possible, which Sabathia and other players took advantage of. It might seem like a small thing, but not every manager would have a policy like that, allowing major-league fathers to share baseball like that with their kids, inspiring a new generation of players.
As Carsten begins the path to his own baseball career, he joins a very successful Georgia Tech program, which has won nine ACC championships and made three College World Series appearances. He will definitely be a name to watch moving forward.