In his first year pitching for the New York Yankees, CC Sabathia won 19 regular season games, went 3-1 in the playoffs (receiving the American League Championship Series Most Valuable Player award) and won his first World Series title. What will he do for an encore? Win 20 games, perhaps?
For CC, the focus is clearly on winning another title. Some baseball players get complacent after having so much success in their first year with a team. Not CC. And not the Yankees.
Sabathia made it clear that if he ever struggles with motivation, he just has to look across his locker room at the Core Four (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte) to find it again. His fellow starter Pettitte is the perfect example. He could have easily chosen to retire after winning his fifth World Series title, especially after he played such a critical role in the team's successful 3-man playoff rotation. No one would have held that against him. But he chose to put himself through another grueling spring training and regular season to repeat the feat.
So consider Sabathia plenty motivated, a good sign for the Yanks, who will need their ace to lead them to another title.
Thanks to chris.ptacek via Wikipedia for the photo.
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