NEW YORK — Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia says he had “no other option” than to leave the team for treatment for alcoholism ahead of its loss to Houston in the one-game AL wild-card playoff. In his first remarks to media since seeking treatment, Sabathia told ABC “it was just the time.” An excerpt from the interview was posted Thursday on ABC’s website. The network says the interview will be broadcast Friday on “Good Morning America.” Sabathia says, “I know it was a bad time of the season, but there was no other option for me but to get help. And I understand where, you know, fans would be upset and people don’t understand, but it’s a disease.”…
NEW YORK — Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia says he had “no other option” than to leave the team for treatment for alcoholism ahead of its loss to Houston in the one-game AL wild-card playoff.
In his first remarks to media since seeking treatment, Sabathia told ABC “it was just the time.”
An excerpt from the interview was posted Thursday on ABC’s website. The network says the interview will be broadcast Friday on “Good Morning America.”
Sabathia says, “I know it was a bad time of the season, but there was no other option for me but to get help. And I understand where, you know, fans would be upset and people don’t understand, but it’s a disease.”
“If it was my knee or if it was anything else, then people wouldn’t have a problem with it,” he adds. “You know, it being alcoholism, it was tough for people to swallow, but it’s the same thing.” ;
The 35-year-old left-hander was 6-10 with a 4.73 ERA this season, slowed by a chronic knee injury.
His drinking reportedly reached a “crisis point” on Oct. 2 after a road game against the Baltimore Orioles was rained out. Sabathia appeared to walk unsteadily in front of reporters and offered a teammate a paper cup holding a brown liquid, according to ESPN. That was the start of a “weekend-long bender” during the Yankees’ stay in Baltimore, The New York Post reported at the time. ;
Sabathia, whose late father struggled with drug addiction, showed signs of distress late in the Yankees’ 2015 season. In August, TMZ released footage of Sabathia trying to get involved in an early-morning Toronto street fight after leaving a nightclub. ;
“I just flipped out, you know,” Sabathia said after the video leaked. “I could have handled it better… Just a bad decision on my part.”
Nearly three months later, Sabathia says he’s completed treatment for alcoholism and plans to be ready for the start of the 2016 season. ;
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