When the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum welcomes its five-member class of 2025 for passage to immortality in July, CC Sabathia and Dave Parker will become the eighth and ninth players who donned a Milwaukee Brewers uniform to receive the sport’s highest honor.
At 39, Parker was an All-Star in his one season for the Brew Crew, in 1990, when he hit 21 home runs and drove in 92 runs while batting .289. His contributions were certainly noteworthy, but to Brewers fans, this year’s HOF group has a much more memorable and iconic inductee, one who was only in town for a short time but made a lasting and thankful impression.
In 2008, the Milwaukee Brewers were a team searching for their first postseason berth since their appearance in the 1982 World Series. Throughout most of those 26 years, the Brewers were rarely in contention for the playoffs; in fact, the 2002 squad had the worst record in baseball when they went 56-106. Only twice, in 1992 and 2007, did they finish as runners-up in their division during that lengthy dry spell.
However, it was that 2007 season that gave the Brewers and their fans cause for hope. They went 83-79, just two games behind the division-winning Chicago Cubs, and finished above .500 for the first time in 15 years. Ryan Braun won the National League Rookie of the Year even though he did not make his major league debut until May 24. Braun belted 34 home runs and drove in 97, all while hitting an incredible .324, good for eighth in the league.
Braun’s numbers were amazing, but Prince Fielder’s season was even more impressive. The stout first baseman hit a team-record 50 dingers to go along with his 119 RBI, and his durability allowed him to play in 158 games.
Those two budding superstars, along with future all-stars Corey Hart, J.J. Hardy, and Rickie Weeks, the future looked bright for the Brewers. Now all they hoped for was a workhorse pitcher to carry them to the promised land.
The greatest trade in Milwaukee Brewers history on July 7, 2008, divinely answered those prayers. CC Sabathia, the American League Cy Young award winner in 2007, came over to the Brewers from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for prospects Matt LaPorta, Zach Jackson, Rob Bryson, and eventually, Michael Brantley.
On that day, the Brewers’ record was 49-40, good for third place in the NL Central, four games out of first. Going forward, Sabathia made sure they were trending upwards towards October baseball.
Making the deal more than three weeks before the trade deadline, Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin wanted to make sure Sabathia was in the fold before the All-Star break, and at the time, the players he unloaded were thought to be a premium price to pay. As time went by, Melvin arguably made the most one-sided trade in Brewers’ history.
So eager was Sabathia to get to his new team that he landed in Milwaukee the same day as the press release announcing the trade. The Brewers introduced him to the crowd in the third inning that night, a 4-3 loss to the Rockies, and sent Sabathia to the mound a day later. Sabathia called it an “erratic” performance against the Rockies; he gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits in six innings, with five walks and five strikeouts. But the Brewers won the game 7-3 in front of a wild sellout Tuesday night crowd, which was unusual for a weeknight.
Just as he rushed to get into town, Sabathia acknowledged that he was a bit hasty with his routines that night, but he wanted to make a good first impression with his 42,000 new friends.
“I was more amped up,” Sabathia said. “Usually when I get like that, I have a tendency to throw a lot of balls and miss on my fastball.
“I had a bunch of emotions going through my head. Just from the fans and the electricity they brought to the stadium … I think it just got me a little too excited. I rushed through my bullpen. I was just ready to get to the game and get things going.”
New teammate Braun said that, and most every game Sabathia started, felt like Opening Day.
“It felt like we only needed one run whenever he was pitching,” said Braun. “Sometimes, he delivered it himself.”
Those words proved true five days later, when in front of another sellout crowd, Sabathia pitched a complete game and hit a homer in a 3-2 win against the Reds in the final game of the first half of the season.
CC Mania was just getting warmed up. In his first start following the break, Sabathia struck out 10 in another complete game in San Francisco. Five days later, he threw a three-hit shutout at St. Louis.
And just like that, Milwaukee had its newest folk hero.
Over the course of his brief Brewers career, CC Sabathia’s numbers were staggering. He went 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in 17 starts for Milwaukee in 2008, including seven complete games, and he ultimately led the Brewers to the wild card spot and their first postseason appearance since the 1982 World Series.
One amazing stat: He spent more time that season in the American League, yet led the National League in complete games.
He even earned a first-place vote for the NL Cy Young Award and finished fifth in the voting, all in less than a half year of work.
Needing a win on the season’s final day against the hated Cubs to earn a playoff spot, who else was Milwaukee manager Dale Sveum going to send to the mound than Sabathia?
Working on three days rest, all Sabathia did was throw another complete game on 122 pitches. He gave up one run and four hits while striking out seven. More importantly, he kept the Brewers in the game until Ryan Braun, the 2008 National League MVP, could break a tie and hit a dramatic two-run homer in the bottom of eighth, giving Milwaukee and Sabathia a 3-1 win in front of an overflowing crowd of 45,299, the largest attended game of the season.
Although the Brewers eventually bowed out of the 2008 playoffs, losing three games to one to the eventual world champions Philadelphia Phillies in the Wild Card round, no self-respecting fan of the True Blue Brew Crew will ever forget the Herculean efforts of CC Sabathia in the last summer months of the season. He made their team legitimate again, and the Brewers have been a viable contender most every year since then.
For Sabathia, the feeling was mutual.
“I’ll always remember my time in Milwaukee,” Sabathia said. “Hopefully the fans feel the same way. That was a special part of my career.”
CC Sabathia’s numbers speak for themselves. Over his 19 seasons with the Indians, Brewers, and New York Yankees, here are some of his accolades:
He received 342 out of a possible 394 votes (86.8%) in his very first year of eligibility for election into the Hall of Fame.
All of those career numbers are great, but Brewers fans will always remember, and not soon forget, 11 of those wins in 2008 as fondly as any they have witnessed in team history.
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