Ten minutes after New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman left the home of CC Sabathia last week, Sabathia phoned Cashman.
"I'm all-in," he said.
With those words, Sabathia committed to a seven-year, $161 million deal with the Yankees.
"I think this is the best place for me to try to win a championship," Sabathia said Thursday, on his way to the news conference where he was formally introduced. "Everybody had speculated about me staying in California. I had always talked about winning a championship, and you look at the Yankees, it's something they contend for" just about every year.
Sabathia was phoned twice during his negotiations by Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter -- recruiting calls -- and Jeter told him about how much fun it was playing in New York. The day after he reached his agreement with the Yankees, he called Jeter, and the friends talked again about what it would be like to play together.
Two days before Sabathia made his decision, Reggie Jackson had been in Las Vegas at the winter meetings as part of the Yankees delegation that met with the left-hander. Sabathia, who grew up in the Bay Area, found himself distracted by the presence of the Hall of Famer: "I was just thinking, 'Would it be weird to ask [Jackson] for an autograph?'"
It wasn't until subsequent meetings that Sabathia got to dig in and, without Jackson around, ask questions about the Yankees and New York.
Sabathia said that he and his wife, Amber, are in the process of finding a house.
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