CC Sabathia has been public about his battle with alcoholism ever since he checked into rehab in October 2015. The former New York Yankees pitcher is revealing more details in his new book, “Till The End” about how his dependency on drinking affected his life in and outside baseball.
Among the many stories told in the book is of him recalling himself getting blackout drunk during Jay-Z’s 40th birthday party at a resort in the Dominican Republic in which only 50 guests were invited.
“Drinking helped with my nerves, so I figured drinking more had to help more,” he writes. “Once I got started, I didn’t know when to stop. People told me later that the party finally ended at 5 a.m. I don’t remember. What I do remember is Amber waking me up.
“…Amber came out and found me face down on a lounge chair, passed out, completely naked. Someone had covered my butt with a beach towel. Fortunately, none of the other guests mentioned it. I don’t like to think about who else may have seen me out there.”
Another story is of him being kicked out of the house by his wife after he showed up drunk to a football practice for one of their sons in 2012. She also found text messages sent to another woman. He proceeded to get into his car and drove through a 10-foot-high steel fence on a neighbor’s front lawn. The incident only stayed quiet after he convinced the neighbor to not call the police and paying for the repair.
Sabathia hought his excessive drinking was normal. “It was just part of my routine. So much so that when I went to rehab, I came out and I was thinking ‘how am I going to do this without alcohol’ because it had become so much a part of my routine that it was a part of my pitching, I felt like,” he said.
Sabathia has been sober for six years and retired in 2019.
