C.C. Sabathia nearly involved in a brawl outside Toronto nightclub
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, if you end up on TMZ because you were almost in a brawl outside a nightclub, that’s not a good night. Doesn’t matter if you’re an actor, singer, kindergarten teacher or a professional baseballl player.
C.C. Sabathia, the New York Yankees pitcher who makes $25 million per year, learned that one the hard way. Sabathia, 35, was nearly involved in a brawl early Saturday morning outside of a Toronto nightclub after the Yankees’ 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays. TMZ obtained footage from the dust-up and posted it Monday. As you can see, Sabathia is shouting back at hecklers and has to be held back before finally getting shoved into a cab.
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The street theatrics got wild, but eventually calmed down once Sabathia was pulled away. One guy was audibly trying to play peacemaker, so kudos to him. The whole incident could have been worse, all things considered, but Sabathia was still left to apologize Monday when asked about it. He told Mike Axisa at CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball:
“Just a bad decision on my part,” said Sabathia on Monday. “Probably should have just kept quiet and got in the cab. I’m just glad I ended up getting in the cab before everything that went down.”
Sabathia said it is common to get heckled while out in public, though he acknowledged this time the heckling was personal. He said he couldn’t recall whether the heckling included any racial remarks.
“That’s why I said I could have handled it a little better,” he said. “But obviously I had my cousin and my friends there with me. He helped me out a lot.”
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Sabathia was scheduled to start for the Yankees on Monday night against the Minnesota Twins, but was scratched. Both he and the ballclub said it had nothing to do with the nightclub incident. From MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch:
The Yankees have shifted to a six-man rotation to get their starting pitchers some extra rest as they try to lock down a postseason spot. Sabathia is scheduled to pitch Tuesday instead.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
