The P-DQ: CC Sabathia
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The New York Yankees second-biggest signing in a blockbuster offseason has corner real estate in the spacious clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field — perfect locale for CC Sabathia to survey all the drama that comes with wearing pinstripes.
The hulking lefty who powered Milwaukee to the postseason last year signed a seven-year, $161-million deal with the Yankees and is the face of a renovated pitching staff for baseball’s largest payroll. After talking a bit about the All-Star Game last week in Tampa, Fla., he was the first to kindly test-drive the initial set of questions for The P-DQ (some had changed by the time Adam Wainwright fielded the questions). As he did, Ian Kennedy and a few of the other pitchers around him gathered to listen …
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Advice from a parent that has stayed with you …
To be humble.
Memorable Christmas or holiday gift …
My wife bought me a car last year. A Mercedes S65.
Word or phrase you use too often is …
Well, I don’t know if you can write it down.
Favorite superhero?
Iron Man.
Best fictional baseball player?
Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn
Greatest achievement?
Being a good father.
Current State of mind?
Relaxed. (And he says this looking around the Yankees clubhouse on the day its swarming with media because Alex Rodriguez is going to talk publicly about steroids for the first time.)
Greatest extravagance or indulgence?
My house. Definitely, my house. It’s nice.
Favorite ballplayer growing up?
Ken Griffey Jr.
First car?
1998 Camaro
Current car?
That gift, the 2008 Mercedes S65
Place you’ve got to visit before you die
Jamaica
Who would be in your Fav Five?
President Obama, my mom, my wife, my boy Drew Gooden and LeBron James.
Most embarrassing song on your iPod?
I’m thinking, probably “2 Legit 2 Quit,” M.C. Hammer.
Movie you’ll stop to watch whenever it comes on is …
Coming to America
Sing in the shower or in the car?
Both
You know you’re in the minors when …
You eat peanut butter and jelly every day.
I tune out when people talk about …
My weight.
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On a quick personal note: Remember the Rocky. In Denver this morning, The Rocky Mountain News, the newspaper that made me want to go into newspapers, printed its final edition. It is an unnerving time for the industry, but the shuttering of one of the finest and best newspapers in the country has to get everybody’s attention. I treasured the chance to work at the Rocky, the paper I grew up clipping box scores from each morning. Without fail, it offered some of the finest baseball coverage around — and that was before there was a team of its own to cover. Yesterday the Twitter feed from the newsroom read like a scrolling eulogy. Columnist Dave Krieger runs through the names that made it all happen, dear friend Rick Sadowski says farewell from a road trip, and my boyhood hero Drew Litton captures the moment as only his pen can. The Rocky will be missed. Here’s hoping there aren’t more to follow …
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
It’s good that CC is so relaxed. Let’s hope for his sake his play justifies that gigantic contract, or he will be aten alive.
Great questions, DG. I really enjoyed this, and esp. Adam Wainwright’s P-DQ’s.
How about adding this question, “What was your most embarrassing moment (professional or otherwise)?” They all have probably had embarrassing moments when they’re playing and it might be fun to hear about it, if you think they would be willing to talk about them. Again, great job!