Something special brewing in Milwaukee
By Andy Lopusnakof Bay Area Sports Drive
July 19, 2008

When you look at the six-foot-seven, 290-pound CC Sabathia, Cy Young Award-winning pitcher isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. If anything, he should be playing offensive guard in the NFL, but Friday night the Vallejo native put on a show in his first time back to the Bay Area since being traded from Cleveland to Milwaukee when his Brewers pounded the San Francisco Giants 9-1 in front of a sold-out crowd.

Three days short of his 28th birthday, Sabathia had his finest outing of the season and won his third straight since being traded after his second straight complete game. In this one, he allowed a single run, four hits (three of which were in the final two innings), struck out ten and did not allow a walk. He even had a double and scored the game’s first run.

After giving up a single to Fred Lewis on the first at-bat of the night, Sabathia settled down and retired the next seventeen until Lewis got on with an error in the seventh. The lone run Sabathia gave up was an Aaron Rowand eight-inning home run.

Sabathia grew up in Vallejo, a 45-minute drive from AT&T Park, where he was a three-sport athlete (baseball, basketball and football) at Vallejo High. He received scholarship offers from USC and Hawaii, but chose to play baseball after compiling a 6-0 record with a 0.77 ERA his senior season when the Indians selected him with the twentieth overall selection in the 1998 amateur draft.

He made his MLB debut at the age of 20 in 2001 and seven years later was named the 2007 American League Cy Young Award winner after going 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA and 209 strikeouts. Sabathia started this season rough, with a 3-8 record, however, he won his final three starts with the Tribe and his first three with the Brew Crew. His record stands at 9-8.

When Sabathia was traded, he became the fifth reigning Cy Young Award winner to be traded the season after winning it. He joined Frank Viola, David Cone, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens in hopes to end the Brewers’ 27-year playoff draught since they lost the World Series in 1982 when the team was in the American League.

More history for Sabathia came in his second start with Milwaukee when he became the first pitcher since 1970 to homer in both leagues – doing it on June 21 against the Dodgers when he was with Cleveland and July 13 in his second game with the Brewers against Cincinnati.

Milwaukee entered the second-half of the season following the All Star breaks five-games back in the Central and a one and half behind in the Wild Card race. If the Brew Crew was in either the East or West, it would be leading either division.

Entering the second half of the season, the Giants were seven games back of West-leading Arizona and could still make a serious run at the division title, but need to do something about their continuing home woes after losing their twelfth home contest in the last 16. San Francisco was the worst home record in the majors (17-29).