Hall Of Famer CC Sabathia Says MLB Is 'In A Good Spot' As League Faces Key Changes

0:04 Alex Sherman: I'm pleased to be joined by New York Yankees legend,

0:06 Cleveland Indians legend,

0:08 Milwaukee Brewers legend and Major League Baseball Hall

0:11 of Famer and also now Major League Baseball broadcaster,

0:14 both with Netflix for opening day and NBC

0:17 as they enter into Sunday Night Baseball.

0:20 CC Sabathia, thank you for joining us.

0:22 No problem.

0:23 Thanks for having me.

0:24 Let's start with the state of Major League Baseball.

0:27 I mean, you have an interesting perspective here,

0:28 and that you're still involved in the game today,

0:31 and obviously you were a player for many years.

0:33 Where do you think Major League Baseball is today as a league

0:37 as it kind of looks over the precipice on what is going to be,

0:42 clearly, a very significant collective bargaining agreement after this season.

0:46 Yeah, I think it's, you know, I think we're baseball's in a good spot, you know.

0:51 I mean, you got a lot of young stars right now.

0:54 Connor Griffin, you know, Travis bazala just got called up from Cleveland.

0:58 You know, we implemented a pitch clock couple years ago.

1:02 You know, fans are back in the ballpark,

1:04 so I'm excited about the state of the game.

1:06 I'll ask you point blank, do you think Major League Baseball would be

1:11 better if there was a salary cap in place?

1:13 I have no idea about any of that.

1:15 That's that's way above my pay grade.

1:17 You know, I'm not a player anymore.

1:18 Don't have a dog in that fight, but I do.

1:23 I would, you know, like to see the game continue to, you know, keep going.

1:26 We're, like I said, we're in a good spot,

1:28 and we're growing the game at a great rate.

1:31 I would love to see the game continue to be played.

1:33 Well, let me ask you it in a different way

1:35 that I do think you'll have a perspective on, which is,

1:37 like, you played for the Yankees or the biggest

1:39 market out there also played for some smaller market teams,

1:42 like as a player, as you went through major league baseball,

1:46 did you think this is fair, like, this is a good system,

1:49 or Were there moments where you thought, You know what?

1:52 Like, this system is set up in a way where

1:54 as teams spend hundreds of millions of dollars more than others.

1:58 This seems silly.

1:59 No, I think, I think players, you know,

2:01 we all think, you know, the system is a system.

2:03 We grew up playing in it, and, you know, just kind of is what it is.

2:07 So you get used to it.

2:09 And you know, if there is something that comes, you know,

2:12 through the next CBA, players are adjusted to that too.

2:15 So, you know, players are very flexible.

2:17 They want to play the game.

2:18 They love the game.

2:18 And like I said, I just want to see the game and to continue to be played,

2:22 and that's continue to grow it.

2:24 I mentioned CC, you'll be part of NBC broadcast team for Sunday Night Baseball.

2:28 What has NBC told you about what they want

2:31 an NBC baseball game to look or sound like,

2:34 um, you know, like a, like a traditional baseball game.

2:38 I think NBC does a great job of producing, you know, sports,

2:42 obviously they have Sunday night football or football Night in America,

2:46 you know, now they did a great job of basketball.

2:49 And I think, you know, it's just great that they want to get into the baseball,

2:53 or get back into baseball, I guess, because as a kid, you know,

2:57 NBC was, you know, prevalent, you know, in baseball.

3:00 So it's good to be able to have one back,

3:02 and what do they want your role specifically to be?

3:08 I'm a broadcaster.

3:09 I'm here to you know, call what I see during the game.

3:13 You've you made comments in the past

3:16 about how you've wanted to do more inventive

3:19 things with broadcasting that we kind of all

3:22 know what a traditional baseball game sounds like,

3:25 but, you know, it appeals to you to try

3:28 to get a little bit more creative with these things.

3:31 Are there going to be ways where you can be a little bit more creative?

3:34 Yeah, we'll see.

3:35 I mean, you know, NBC does a good job.

3:38 You know, they have inside pitch.

3:40 They had inside the down on the ice.

3:42 They have, you know, Austin rivers kind of in that role for basketball.

3:47 So I've seen Adam out of vino take that role.

3:50 I did that in Atlanta for the Cleveland game.

3:52 So, you know, they're thinking about different ways

3:55 to keep people engaged and, you know, get younger fans.

3:58 Another comment you made that I wanted to you about,

4:00 because it's a distinct difference from several

4:02 guests we've had on this show recently.

4:04 Is about retirement.

4:06 I read it was an interview you did previously that you said you couldn't wait

4:10 to retire because it kind of allowed you to live life for the first time,

4:15 and that baseball is sort of, you know, it's an odd life.

4:18 It's constantly traveling,

4:19 and it doesn't really allow you to pursue all these other things.

4:22 That's kind of in stark difference to many other athletes,

4:25 including several I've spoken to on this show you know,

4:28 Tom Brady or Lindsey Vonn, who kind of like whatever it takes,

4:32 like they want to push their career to the absolute maximum.

4:35 Now, look, you did play for a while, but what?

4:38 What is a while played for 19 years?

4:40 19 years.

4:41 Granted, you pushed it, but, but those athletes don't say the same thing as you,

4:47 where they say, I can't wait to retire.

4:49 And so I'm curious, like, Why?

4:51 Why do you think you're maybe built

4:53 a little differently than some of these look,

4:55 you see it with Tiger Woods, right?

4:56 It's like he's, he'll do like, whatever he can to keep playing um.

5:00 Um, you clearly, you know, you, you were content,

5:03 let's say that with retirement, I think everybody's different.

5:06 Man, I got four kids, you know, at the time when I retired,

5:10 my oldest was 15 years old, and, you know,

5:13 starting his baseball career, I wanted to be around,

5:15 you know, for my family, you know, I like being home.

5:18 I like being around my family.

5:19 And like I said, you said, I played for a while.

5:21 Played for 19 years as a long as a big chunk of my of my childhood,

5:26 and, you know, my young adulthood, playing a baseball game.

5:29 So, you know, I was 39 years old.

5:31 It was time to retire, and I have no regrets.

5:35 It was the greatest decision I ever made.

5:37 You have made some investments post career.

5:40 I'm curious if one of your goals would be to be a minority owner,

5:46 potentially in a major league baseball team.

5:50 Um, not right now.

5:51 Um, you know, I'm good with my job, but MLB, you know,

5:54 I have a nice role with Rob and, you know,

5:56 we have a good program there with Commissioner Ambassadors Program.

5:59 Um, we're doing some good work.

6:00 So it's good to be able to see kind of the game on this side.

6:04 Like I said, you know,

6:06 keep growing the game and just doing some things in the youth space,

6:10 you know, right now that are occupying my time.

6:12 And, you know, I'm having a lot of fun doing that.

6:14 How have you thought about managing your money post career?

6:17 I mean, are you, do you have a team that works with you.

6:21 Are you making these investment decisions on your own?

6:23 No, I have a team that works with me.

6:26 And you know what?

6:27 Like as you think about the different investment opportunities,

6:30 are there certain things that you particularly are passionate about investing

6:34 in, or are you taking these each kind of case by case,

6:37 and thinking like, you know, how do I maximize my return?

6:40 I'm taking them case by case.

6:42 By case.

6:42 It just kind of depends.

6:44 You know, Mark patrikoff put together a group of good athletes that, you know,

6:49 do a good job of, kind of filtering through investments.

6:51 And that's, that's where I'm that's where

6:53 I'm kind of living at right now, right?

6:55 Mark a former investment banker,

6:56 and then sort of transferred his career to, you know,

7:00 sports investment, high net worth individuals like working with athletes.

7:03 Just walk me through that a little bit.

7:05 Is, does he kind of have these, like, you know, meetings or whatever,

7:09 where he's throwing investment ideas by you how does that work?

7:12 Uh, yeah, both, you know, I come with I come with ideas.

7:15 People come to me and, you know, they throw stuff at us.

7:17 So it's kind of both ways.

7:19 Major League Baseball has made a couple

7:21 rule changes that have been very successful,

7:24 I think, terms of the pitch clock, and now we have the challenge system.

7:28 I think people like that.

7:29 As you look at the game today,

7:31 is there another rule change that you have in mind

7:33 that you think might make the game even better?

7:35 No, not right now.

7:36 I mean, I think we've changed the game so much the last couple of years,

7:40 whether it was the pitch clock putting

7:42 in the shift the stolen base rules, you know, yes.

7:47 So I think, you know, we need to let the game kind of breathe like

7:52 settle settle in, let these guys play under these rules

7:54 for a couple of years and but the changes

7:56 that we made have brought people back to the ballpark.

7:58 You see, you know, kids at the ballpark in the middle of the week now,

8:01 because, you know, the game's gonna be over in two and a half hours.

8:04 So you see fans super engaged in the ABS challenge and that coming on the board.

8:09 So the changes that we've made,

8:12 you know, fundamentally to the game, have worked,

8:14 but I don't think you could keep changing the game every year and expecting,

8:18 you know, what we've gotten.

8:20 So I think we should let these kind of rules

8:22 that we've we've laid out kind of breathe for a couple years,

8:25 and, you know, see where we need to make

8:27 adjustments after that, you mentioned you have four kids,

8:29 and you discussed youth sports briefly.

8:31 I'm curious your thoughts on sort

8:32 of the state of Little League and youth baseball.

8:35 I talked about this with Landon Donovan a couple weeks ago with youth soccer.

8:39 He had a really, you know, a sharp take saying that youth soccer

8:43 was too competitive and needed to be overhauled.

8:45 Is it the same in baseball?

8:47 Or does the tradition of Little League kind of cut at that in a way

8:52 where you think maybe youth baseball is in a better place?

8:55 No, I wish that kids would, you know,

8:57 not play travel at, you know, so early, nine, you Tim,

9:00 you whatever it is, you know,

9:02 we all grew up playing Little League, which was 16 games scheduled.

9:04 When that was over, then you had a chance to play a different sport, you know.

9:09 So I would love to see, you know, us not play travel until we're 12.

9:13 So everybody has to play Little League on the small field, go through, you know,

9:17 whatever tournament you have to go through try to get to Williamsport,

9:21 and then after that, whatever perfect game team,

9:24 or whatever team you want to play on, is cool to travel,

9:27 but I would love to see younger kids,

9:29 kind of standing in their neighborhoods and playing with their friends.

9:32 You're obviously sitting in Yankee Stadium here.

9:35 I'm curious how you have negotiated sort of the your career,

9:40 in terms of your association with team,

9:43 you know, is that something where you know you've got Indian fans in your life,

9:46 and they say to you, you know, you're an Indian, not a Yankee,

9:49 like is that is, is it a stress on you at all?

9:52 Or is it natural?

9:52 It's not a stress at all.

9:54 It's, it's a great thing to be able to, you know, have a fan base in Cleveland,

9:57 that we have a fan base in New York, and now you.

10:00 Going into the wall of family Milwaukee.

10:02 So just blessed to be able to have such great three fan bases

10:06 to be a part of and great franchises to be a part of.

10:10 So it's a blessing.

10:11 And tell me about your partnership here with working with heart health partner,

10:15 Apple playing with heart website.

10:18 It's an educational website to help people understand,

10:21 you know, heart health and you know,

10:23 their bad cholesterol, you know, something that is personal to me.

10:26 You know, I was out here pitching on this now with, you know,

10:29 basically 90% blockage and not understanding.

10:32 You know, my my own personal heart health.

10:35 So you know, it's easy for me to endorse things that are personal to me.

10:39 Cece, thanks for joining us.

10:40 No problem.

10:41 You.