CC Sabathia Makes His ‘Field of Dreams’ Selections and Then Talks to Us About the NBA Lockout

On Wednesday we were invited to sit down and speak with Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia at the MLB Fan Cave in New York City to talk about the Pepsi Max “Field of Dreams” campaign in which fans are asked to vote for an 11-man dream team to compete against a team compiled of fans.

Generally we are of the cynical belief that most sponsored athletes are simply going through the motions when speaking with the media, but we give Sabathia a ton of credit because he seemed legitimately into the questions being lobbed his way. Maybe because he’s become numb to the opt-out questions or maybe it’s because he’s got bigger things to worry about–the NBA lockout!

We appreciate Sabathia answering a few questions from us, and urge you to take the time to vote for your “Field of Dreams” Pepsi Max team. Hey, you might be able to suit-up against some of the all-time greats.

CC, thanks for taking some time..
No problem.

We’ll try to get through this without talking opt-out. A non-opt-out interview, if you will.
Ah, no problem.

Wanted to ask you about the pitchers in the Pepsi Max campaign: Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson or Greg Maddux. I know you personally chose Randy Johnson for your team. Why Johnson?
Watching him, growing up, I’ve always been a big Randy Johnson fan. He’s very intimidating, a lefty, like I am. He’s just always been one of my favorites.

Offensively, you got a lot of sluggers on here. A couple who you faced, including Frank Thomas. He’s actually a .185 hitter against you in 32 plate appearances.
I wouldn’t have known that! I thought he hit me pretty good.

Would you say you’ve got his number?
[Laughs] No! I’m sure he hit a few of those balls pretty far.

Same with Ken Griffey, Jr. He’s just a .265 hitter against you in over 20 at-bats.
He was actually tough to face. He had a pretty good eye for the strike zone, and if you hung any kind of breaking ball anywhere near the strike zone he was going to hammer it. You pretty much had to stay hard with him and hope he’d get himself out.

You also got Rickey Henderson on this list. I know he believes he can play in the Majors well into his seventies…
…I believe that too!

What are your thoughts on Rickey Henderson as an option on this list?
Ricky was a once in a generation type of player. I got a chance to watch him a lot, being out in Oakland and going to  lot of the A’s games. He was always one of my favorite players, too.

I talked with Rollie Fingers about this campaign as well and he’s certainly one of the greatest closers in the history of the game, but, historically speaking, is Mo Rivera your guy to close out a big game?
Yeah, without a doubt. Still today he’s hitting 92-93 miles per hour, cutting the ball. When he comes in the game … If I can go eight innings and turn it over to him I know we have a great chance to win.

Were you surprised to see the Yankees remain silent and not make a move at the trade deadline?
Not really. I think our team is pretty good. I don’t think we really need anything. Now our problem is that we’ve got six starters. If anything, we’ve got too much. I feel like we’re pretty good where we’re at. You always expect us to make a move because that’s what we do, but I don’t think we needed to this year.

You mentioned the team now has six starters, what are your thoughts on getting that extra days rest?
I think it makes it a little tougher on guys, having six guys in the rotation, with the extra off day, but all six guys deserve to be in the rotation. Who do you take out? That’s a tough decision they have to make. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

You have 173 career wins — Everyone says you have the best shot among active pitchers at getting to 300 wins. Do you even think that far down the road?
Not right now. I just go out and try to stay healthy, make sure I make all my starts, and give the team a chance to win. That’s a lot more games to pitch in and hopefully win. I’m going to have to stick around for a lot longer to hopefully get a chance to get there.

I know you’re a big NBA fan — are you worried that there won’t be a season this year?
It’s devastating! I’m happy there’s going to be football this year, but I don’t know what I’m going to do if I can’t go to Knicks games. It’s going to be tough.

If you were a basketball player, would you have considered playing overseas during the lockout?
Definitely. These guys still want to play. They’re in the middle of their careers, many of them in their prime. It’s tough to take a year layoff. You would expect guys to want to keep playing.

Click here for more on the Pepsi Max “Field of Dreams” campaign.