How Yankees Legend CC Sabathia Is Prioritizing Health & Longevity in Retirement

Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia spoke about how nearly suffering a heart attack prompted him to place more attention on his diet and other aspects of long-term health

This past Friday, the New York Yankees immortalized CC Sabathia’s No. 52 with an enshrinement ceremony in Monument Park. However, the Hall of Fame pitcher argues there’s a far more important figure he and everyone else should be focused on.

Sabathia pitched in the majors for 19 years, including 11 with New York, but his last almost didn’t happen. In November 2018, he woke up in the middle of the night throwing up with symptoms he originally believed were heart attack-induced. Eventually, Sabathia learned he had a 90% blockage in an artery leading to his heart. He then underwent an emergency angioplasty, or stent placement.

“Had I not known or not been on top of everything, I could have passed away at 38 years old from a massive heart attack,” he said. “Like, I’m out here pitching, I could have passed out on the mound. So, it’s important for people to understand their number, check with their doctor and understand what’s going on inside the body.”

The number Sabathia’s referring to is LDL-C, also known as your “bad” cholesterol level. At a high level, it’s a major risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States.

Sabathia’s experience learning about his LDL-C, prompted him to partake in Merck and WomenHeart‘s “Playing with Heart” program, which involves nine MLB franchises focused on spreading awareness on the dangers of bad cholesterol and the importance of monitoring heart health.

The day before his number retirement ceremony, Sabathia spoke at Yankee Stadium on what he’s learned throughout the experience and how he and modern-day athletes are now doing to focus more on their long-term wellness. New York manager Aaron Boone, who has his own history of heart conditions dating back to his childhood and years as a player, joined him as well.

“Diets a very important part of it,” Boone said when asked how he prioritizes his heart health. “Making sure you’re picking your spots to have your sweets. Exercise, obviously, is very important — just taking responsible steps, whether that’s diet, sleep, exercise and all those things.”

Sabathia also spoke about diet, referring to the change in his as the largest step he’s taken to improve his LDL-C. Today, his diet mainly consists of Mediterranean food.

“It’s straight Mediterranean,” he said. “I feel good. I’ve lost a bunch of weight. I always lifted and always did cardio, but now I can do it at my rate.”

Sabathia agreed that athletes have a responsibility to normalize conversations around concepts related to long-term wellness as they’ve done with performance and recovery.

“For sure,” Sabathia said. “Anybody that knows me knows that I’ll talk about anything I’ve been through publicly. Whether it’s alcohol dependency, my heart or anything that I have going on, I want people to know that I’m going through the same things that some other people are going through, and maybe my story can help you.”

Whether its a result of Sabathia’s activism or not, younger athletes already seem off to a good start in prioritizing their health.

“This generation athletes are not like my generation athletes,” Sabathia added. “They are very in tune with their bodies. There’s no candy in here right now. It’s a completely different clubhouse than what I came up in in you know the early 2000s. Even just thinking about my son, my-23-year old, he’s in rookie ball, and the way that he’s in tune with his body, it’s incredible. It’s something that I wish I had as a young player.”

That’s true across other sports as well. In recent years, the NFL has worked with brands like Hyperice and Whoop to better address player recovery and long-term health. The NBPA also recently added a preferred virtual care provider, making more holistic health services available to its players in remote settings.