CC Sabathia cried about joining the Brewers, but it sure worked out well

“I had never been to another organization,” Sabathia continued. “I didn’t know if I could do it anywhere else.

“I had got to Cleveland when I was 17 years old. Got to the big league when I was 20, and I had become a man there, so I didn’t know if I could play anywhere else. So, getting traded was tough.”

Tough, but in many ways also the best thing that could have happened to Sabathia. And his arrival was a boon to the Brewers that is still felt a generation later.

With a pep talk from wife Amber – “These people want you there,” she told him – Sabathia wiped his tears, came to Milwaukee and pitched the next day. He scattered five hits and two earned runs over six innings and picked up the win in a 7-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

He would go on to compile an 11-2 record and 1.65 earned run average in 17 starts, seven of which were complete games and three that were shutouts. Sabathia made his final three starts on three days’ rest, and his complete-game victory on the final day of the regular season, coupled with a Mets loss, put the Brewers into the postseason.

The deal, in which the Brewers gave up outfielder Michael Brantley, first baseman Matt LaPorta, and pitchers Zach Jackson and Rob Bryson, is still considered one of the most impactful in-season trades in major-league history.

And the winning attitude, desire, energy and toughness Sabathia brought to the club are still felt, as is the jolt he gave to Milwaukee baseball fandom that allowed the Brewers to top 3 million in attendance that year.

“CC Sabathia single-handedly changed the culture of this organization in two months,” Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio said. “When I got here [in 2005] … come July, [some players] had their golf clubs in the clubhouse, thinking about what they were gonna do next.

“Instead, that summer everybody pulled together, and it was all about winning. And being great teammates. … CC just bonded this whole clubhouse together, and everything has been different after that. And that’s an intangible. I wish you could bottle it. You’d look for it. You can’t find it.

“We’ve had some great leaders in this clubhouse. That’s all built on the shoulders of what CC did that summer.”

While he appreciated the compliment, Sabathia did downplay his role in a culture change. Mostly, he said, it was about taking a team that had the building blocks and nudging it in the right direction.

Regardless, the gratitude goes both ways.

Although Sabathia had won the Cy Young Award the previous season, he had taken a step back to start 2008 and was sitting at 6-8 with an ERA of 3.83 before the change of scenery flipped a switch for him.

Sabathia went on to sign with the Yankees and spent 11 seasons in New York, retiring after 2019 with a career record of 251-161, ERA of 3.74, 3,093 strikeouts, six All-Star Game appearances, an ALCS MVP award (2009) and a World Series championship (2009). Sabathia is one of only five pitchers with at least 250 wins, 3,000 strikeouts and a .600 winning percentage and one of four left-handers with 3,000 strikeouts.

Sabathia was already a member of the Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame last year and will have his number retired by the Yankees this fall.

“It was a short 2, 2 ½, 3 months, but I don’t think I would have been able to go on and have the career I had in New York, had I not been able to have this stop,” Sabathia said.

Dave Parker came to Milwaukee for just one season late in his career but became the Brewers best player in 1990 and brought valuable leadership.

Parker, who also was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2025, arrived via free agency ahead of the 1990 season and hit .289 with 21 home runs and 92 runs batted in.

One season away from the end of a 19-year-career, he was the Brewers’ best player, a Silver Slugger Award winner and MLB’s designated hitter of the year.

“The Cobra” was a powerful hitter withh a cannon for an arm in right field and exceptional speed for a someone 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds.

A seven-time all-star, Parker won two National League batting titles, was the 1978 NL most valuable player and was a part of World Series winning teams in Pittsburgh (1979) and Oakland (1989).

Much the way Sabathia would 18 years later, Parker brought a winning attitude, leadership and an infectious personality to a team with young players who benefited from his experience.

“The 1990 team had B.J. Surhoff, who was 25 years old; Greg Vaughn, 25 years old; Paul Molitor, 33; Robin Yount, 33; and Gary Sheffield, 21,” said former Brewers general manager Doug Melvin. “Those are five pretty good hitters. Offensive players.

“But at the age of 39, Dave Parker led the team in hits, doubles, RBIs, OPS. And I think it’s about time that Dave Parker got recognized by Cooperstown and by the Brewers, and to be able to put his plaque out here on this wall.”

Parker, who died of complications of Parkinson’s disease last year at age 74, was represented by his son David Parker II.

“He always likes winning, regardless of what it was, golf, baseball, dominoes,” Parker said of his father. “It doesn’t matter. He always had a competitive spirit, and that’s one thing I think that people would know about him. He was always a great teammate. He liked to joke and laugh in the locker room, but he also liked to be competitive.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: CC Sabathia, Dave Parker added to Milwaukee Brewers Wall of Honor