Retired New York Yankees lefty CC Sabathia feels the Houston Astros “cheated” him out of another World Series ring.
This week, the MLB served justice onto the Houston Astros. After a large and impactful investigation, the league decided to suspend general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch for one year due to stealing signs in 2017 and 2018. Shortly after the suspensions were announced, Astros owner Jim Crane decided to fire both Houston staff members.
The former year in which the Astros illegally stole signs was the season in which they won the World Series. Prior to the Fall Classic, the Astros defeated the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Many Yankees from that team are happy about the sanctions placed on Houston. Nonetheless, now-retired lefty CC Sabathia still feels hurt.
“As everything’s been coming out, and the more facts that we get, it’s getting frustrating, man, to sit here and know that late in my career I could’ve had a title, maybe ’17 or maybe ’18, but we got cheated out of a team kind of doing something that’s not within the rules of the game,” Sabathia said on Tuesday’s episode of “Inside the NFL” on Showtime, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post.
This past year, Sabathia played his final season in the majors. He’ll now become a special advisor to Bombers general manager Brian Cashman and may work for the YES broadcast team as well.
During his Showtime appearance, the longtime southpaw also weighed in on if the Astros 2017 title should be taken away.
“Maybe, yeah. I mean, why not? …Vacate it,” he said. “I wouldn’t be mad at that.”
Sabathia and the Yankees additionally fell to the Astros in the American League Championship Series in 2019. The Astros then went on to lose to the Washington Nationals in the World Series.