Yankees: CC Sabathia has every right to believe he was cheated out of another title

It’s hard to really say whether or not the Yankees were cheated out of winning a World Series title in 2017 and 2018. However, for any player on those Yankee teams that lost to the Astros and Red Sox, they have every right to believe they were and future Hall of Famer CC Sabathia is one of them.

On Monday the Astros were rightfully punished by Major League Baseball for cheating their way to a World Series title in 2017. A similar punishment could be coming soon for the 2018 Red Sox who are also currently under investigation for alleged sign-stealing during their championship season. The Yankees, of course, were defeated by both teams in the postseason.

CC Sabathia retired following the 2019 season and he was a member of both clubs that were eliminated by the eventual World Series champions. Now CC is speaking out following Monday’s big announcement and he can’t help but wonder if he was cheated out of a second title towards the end of his 19-year career.

During an appearance Tuesday night on Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” the former Yankee great addressed the news and how he felt following the announcement.

"“It’s weird, like it changes all the time. When I first heard it, I was upset, and then as investigations went on … I was like, well, we can’t go back and play the games. … But as more information started to come out, I’m like, we played a seven-game series in 2017, ALCS, and we lost really on kind of like one pitch.”"

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CC was the starter for the Yankees in Game 7 at Houston pitching 3.1 innings of one-run ball in the 4-0 loss. Obviously, you can’t win games without scoring any runs and the Yankees really struggled against the Astros pitching staff in all four losses at Houston during the seven-game series.

That being said, it’s now very likely that the Astros cheating helped their offense score at home so even though the Yankee offense fell flat in Houston there’s now no denying that their pitching staff was cheated against. That’s more than enough reason for the Yankees, CC and the rest of their pitching staff to have a massive gripe.

Unlike his teammates from 17′ and 18′ who are still with the Yankees CC can speak on the punishment now that the facts are out and he’s officially retired. Nobody can stop him from expressing his opinions and thoughts on what could have been.

"“As everything’s been coming out and the more facts that we get, it’s getting frustrating, man, to sit here and know that late in my career I could’ve had a title, maybe ’17 or maybe ’18. But we got cheated out of a team kind of doing something that’s not within the rules of the game.”"

CC went on to say that he would like to see Commissioner Manfred take the punishment a step further and vacate the championships. That’s highly unlikely, but you can’t blame him for hoping. At the very least he and his teammates can take solace in knowing that the Astros championship will always be tainted and nobody can deny that.