Starting pitcher was picture of relaxation
It is impossible for any Yankee not to see CC Sabathia. He is sitting on a black leather couch in the center of the visitors' locker room at Fenway, before last night's game. He's sharing it with reliever Brett Tomko and they're watching "Deadliest Catch." It is also impossible for any Yankee not to see how relaxed Sabathia is.
"There was this one episode once - this is the worst," Tomko said. "All these lobsters were just clinging to this one guy, just snapping at him, and he couldn't get them off. Just clinging, all over his body, and he had no chance."
Sabathia is completely unfazed. He says nothing.
The wretched clinging, the powerlessness, the subconscious peril - Sabathia understands none of this.
In the dugout, Yankee manager Joe Girardi is being hammered by New York media about Chien-Ming Wang. They want to know if he'll stay in the rotation, and the answer is yes.
Now, they have more questions. Should Wang have been put in this situation - they mean against the Red Sox - since he hasn't been able to come close to winning a game this season? In many different ways, this is the only thing they're asking.
In many different ways, he gives the same answer: There is no real way to know.
Girardi handles the inquiries with an almost saintly patience. He is at last rewarded. One person, finally, asks if Sabathia, who is preparing to start, is worried about the circumstances: The Yankees haven't beaten the Red Sox this season, the pitching staff is wildly inconsistent, and the team just fell out of first place.
"I don't think he changes dependent on who he's playing," said Girardi. "He's had great success against good teams. And that's real important, because we haven't had a starter get out of the third inning yet."
In the corner of the clubhouse, rookies Phil Coke and David Robertson are chatting. Every few seconds, they look over to Sabathia, who is still strewn across the couch. He had watched a full movie, "Baby Mama," before watching an hour of deep-sea fishermen struggling for air. Coke and Robertson peer over to their ace with a mix of reverence and bewilderment. Sabathia will pitch in an hour and a half.
More: Sabathia will try to help the Yankees beat the Red Sox for the first time in seven tries in an hour and a half.
More: Sabathia will try to help the Yankees win back first place in an hour and a half.
More: Sabathia will try to prevent a teamwide panic and its repercussions - the back pages of newspapers, the 24-hour sports talk radio.
The powerlessness, the maybe-we-just-can't-beat-this-team clinging to their pinstripes, bubbling to the surface - all of this will be addressed in an hour and a half.
Sabathia finally gets up, summoned by a trainer to stretch, and Tomko gets up along with him, summoned by no one, as if he didn't want to be there at all, as if he were just looking for a little bit of direction all along.
