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If, a few years from now, CC Sabathia is standing on a stage behind the Clark Sports Complex in Cooperstown, New York, delivering a speech on Induction Day, many will point to a moment this past season that kind of encapsulated what he is all about.

It happened at Tropicana Field on Sept. 27. The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays were meeting, with not-quite-nothing at stake. The Yankees were trying to put the wraps on home-field advantage for the American League wild-card game, while the resurgent Rays had already been eliminated. On a personal basis, in his final regular-season start, Sabathia needed to go seven innings to reach 155 innings, thus triggering a $500,000 contract bonus. He had made it through only seven innings in four of his 28 prior starts.

But that day, Sabathia was rolling through the Tampa Bay lineup, holding the Rays to a lone hit through 4⅔ shutout innings. Then, with two outs in the fifth, a Sabathia cutter got in on rookie Jake Bauers and hit him on the hand. Bauers took his base, Sabathia got the last out, and that should have been that. He had thrown only 54 pitches and the Yankees were up 7-0. There didn't figure to be a universe in which Sabathia would not get through seven innings and trigger the bonus.

Ballplayers can be thick, at times, and sometimes when they do take leave of their senses, crazy stuff happens. The result can be the occasional beanball war, ejections and even a brawl from time to time. Well, the Rays' Andrew Kittredge threw behind Austin Romine to start the sixth, sending Sabathia's catcher sprawling into the dirt. Sabathia, watching from the dugout, started out onto the field but was intercepted by manager Aaron Boone. Plate umpire Vic Carapazza issued warnings.

It turned out to be a long inning, as the Yankees stretched their lead to 11-0. But Sabathia did not forget. Nor did he cool off and focus on all of that money. With his first pitch of the bottom of the sixth, he nailed Jesus Sucre in the left knee with a 93-mph fastball -- the fastest of his 55 pitches that day by two miles per hour. And, yes, it was his last pitch of the day. Carapazza threw him out of the game. Yankees announcer Michael Kay said, "CC just cost himself $500,000." Kay then added, "That's why CC's teammates love him." As Sabathia stalked off the mound, he pointed at the Rays' dugout and yelled, "That was for you, b----."

The Yankees, of course, ended up giving Sabathia the bonus anyway. You can just see the talking heads describing it on a Ken Burns documentary. This is how legends are made. However, it's not necessarily proof that one belongs among the legends.

In November, when the annual "Bill James Handbook" was released, in the section where they calculated the probabilities for players to reach career milestones, Sabathia was given an 8 percent chance at winning 300 games. He finished the 2018 season with 246. That chance is now 0 percent, because on Saturday, Sabathia announced that the approaching 2019 campaign -- his 19th as a big leaguer -- would be his last.

He turns 39 in July, but it's possible he'll be leaving a little bit of production on the table. After struggling to adapt to his inevitable drop in velocity a few years back, Sabathia began throwing that cutter, and focused more on using his slider. Starting in 2016, he regained some of his old form. He wasn't as dominant, and didn't work as deep into games. But he was still plenty good. Over the past three seasons, Sabathia went 32-24 with an ERA+ of 117 and 8.3 WAR. Three hundred wins was probably a long shot even if he had tried to hang on, but you never know.

Now we're all looking ahead at yet another Yankee farewell tour. Which isn't a bad thing. Whatever your feelings about the Bronx Bombers might be, it's hard to deny that Sabathia has been one of the best and most entertaining pitchers of his generation. When the season ends, the clock will begin ticking on Sabathia's five-year waiting period before his Hall of Fame case is taken up by the BBWAA. What will that case look like?

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The belief used to be the magic number was 300 wins. But that is incorrect and quite a lofty number. There are currently 24 pitchers with 300 wins or more in the Hall of Fame. There are certainly more than 24 pitchers deserving of that honor. Fergie Jenkins is in with 284 wins. Robin Roberts had 286 wins. Red Ruffing had 273. Mike Mussina just got in this year with 270. Jim Palmer had 268. Bob Feller 266. Carl Hubbell 253. Bob Gibson 251. So 300 isn't the magic number.


That's good for CC. He won't get near 300 wins but he could surpass Gibson and Hubbell. He's got 246 wins and needs just 5 to tie Gibson. But it takes more than that. Stikeouts? There are even less pitchers (16) with 3000 strikeouts than 300 wins. He's got 2986 so 14 more will give him 3000 joining that "crowd". So what's left? Innings pitched? There are 60 pitchers with 3600 innings pitched. If CC can log 130 IP he'll be the 61st. If he does all three he will be just the 15th pitcher to accomplish that...250 wins or more, 3000 strikeouts or more, 3600 inning pitched or more. 13 of the 14 are in the HOF with Roger Clemens being the only exception (deservedly). If CC gets to those heights, isn't that enough for election into the HOF?

There is an unofficial formula that ranks pitchers (all time) and CC ranks #53 on that list. Just 10 above him are not in the HOF with one of those being Clayton Kershaw and another Roger Clemens.

[dieterbrock]

CC will definitely get in to the Hall of Good, as I think he’s way more deserving than Mussina was.
I don’t know what the new benchmarks will be, We won’t see another 300 game winner again.
Ever.
In fact, we likely won’t see 250 again after CC, Colon and possibly Verlander (204 so it will be close). Pitch counts, openers and saber metrics will continue to makes wins less and less available.

CC has an ALCS mvp, a Cy Young, a WS ring (largely due to his addition) and was able to recreate himself after he lost his FB
He is the poster child of the big FA acquisition signing who brings home a championship and earned his payday.

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The guy I wished could get in was Gator. From 1977-1985 he went 154-67 with a 3.15 ERA, 1483 K's, 529 walks and a 1.16 Whip. He was the CYA winner in 1978, finished 3rd in 1979 and 2nd in 1985. 5 time Gold Glove winner. Probably one the top 5 pitchers in the AL during that time. He finished in the top 5 in ERA 3 times, win% 6 times, Strikeouts 5 times and wins 4 times. He's #27 all time in Win% (.651) .0035 behind Koufax (#25 all time). Ironically, their comparative W/L records are very close. SK 165-87, Gator 170-91.

[dieterbrock]

The guy I wished could get in was Gator. From 1977-1985 he went 154-67 with a 3.15 ERA, 1483 K's, 529 walks and a 1.16 Whip. He was the CYA winner in 1978, finished 3rd in 1979 and 2nd in 1985. 5 time Gold Glove winner. Probably one the top 5 pitchers in the AL during that time. He finished in the top 5 in ERA 3 times, win% 6 times, Strikeouts 5 times and wins 4 times. He's #27 all time in Win% (.651) .0035 behind Koufax (#25 all time). Ironically, their comparative W/L records are very close. SK 165-87, Gator 170-91.

I wish I could high five you right now.
It is ridiculous that he isn’t in.
He was so dominant for a period of time.
That’s the thing that the HOF misses on. Was a player dominant?
I was going to bring up David Cone, I feel like he was a more dominant pitcher in his career than Mike Mussina ever was. But the “stats” aren’t good enough.
But Coney pales in comparison to your example of Gator.

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I wish I could high five you right now.
It is ridiculous that he isn’t in.
He was so dominant for a period of time.
That’s the thing that the HOF misses on. Was a player dominant?
I was going to bring up David Cone, I feel like he was a more dominant pitcher in his career than Mike Mussina ever was. But the “stats” aren’t good enough.
But Coney pales in comparison to your example of Gator.

If you hear Ken Singleton talk about facing Gator it's comical. Singleton was an excellent hitter/player who had the benefit of batting in front of Eddie Murray and he hated facing Guidry. Gator was equally effective against both righties and lefties (both Singleton and Murray were switch hitters). I remember watching the game in Anaheim when he K'd 18. He was unhittable that night as he was many times in his career. I also remember game 5 in 1981 with the Series tied at 2. Cruising along with a 1-0 lead he gives up back to back solo homers to Guerrero and Yeager in the 7th. Yanks lose 2-1. Guidry's line? 7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K. His teammates should have bailed him out!!! Perhaps the Series would have turned out differently.