CC talks about not talking contract

As the full Tribe squad assembled in Winter Haven, CC Sabathia held court yesterday to talk with reporters for what he said would be the first and last time about his decision not to talk contract with the Tribe until the season is over.

Fat chance! (no pun intended)

Do you think there is any chance that CC will not be asked about his future plans with each city he visits this year?

He'll get questions the first time he goes to each city. And he'll get questions the last time he goes there as his free agency will be drawing closer as the season starts to wane.

They may not ask him much about it in Kansas City, but can you imagine the press in New York or Boston quietly tip-toeing past his locker because he says he doesn't want to talk about the future.

On the New York talk shows and in the tabloids it will be a foregone conclusion that CC will be a Yankee next year. The reasoning being - as always - "who wouldn't want to be a Yankee or play in New York? You'd have to be crazy!"

Just as they think it is their God-given right to be in the World Series every year, Yankee fans and much of the media here assume they have first dibbs on every free agent of any worth.

Or how about when the Tribe takes on the Dodgers or the Giants (his hometown team) during interleague play?

No one from the LA Times or the San Francisco Chronicle is going to ask him if he wouldn't prefer pitching in the Sunshine State over tossing snowballs on Opening Day in Cleveland?

Is it possible that he'll be asked by reporters in Oakland whether it might just be that the A's tore it all down this winter so they have some money to start building it up again around a hometown hero next winter?

Then there's the national media-- close cousins to the New York media -- who also will have CC in pinstripes well before he throws his last pitch in anger this season.

He will be the hottest free agent of the upcoming off-season. Does CC really think the national media is not going to mention that every time he takes a breath this year?

And, of course, you have the Cleveland fans. For them CC has this advice:

"You have to have faith. Everyone here knows how I feel about this place and how much it means to me. I've been here since I was 17 years old. We'll have plenty of time after the season to get it done." --CC Sabathia quoted by the Plain Dealer

Well, we've heard that before- much like a 20-something hearing that "it's not you, it's me," from the latest love of his life. No matter "who it is," the bottom line is it's over.

No one really expected Albert Belle would stick around. Albert was clearly in it for Albert.

Some of us had hope that Manny Ramirez - because he is such a loose cannon - might wake up one morning, steal first base and then say "let me have that contract, I feel like re-signing here." That didn't happen either.

Then there was the All-American Boy. Mr. Aw Shucks himself, who - having grown up in Peoria - felt like Cleveland was the big time. He even married a Cleveland girl. And he loved the city and the fans SOOO MUCH!! Surely Jim Thome would stick around.

So pardon the Indian fan if he isn't buying the "keep hope alive" crap. Forgive him too if - on one of the few days CC gets bombed this season - the Cleveland fan lets the Big Man have an earful.

Even if Sabathia can block out all of the noise outlined above there will still be somebody talking to him all season long about his future.

That little voice inside his head is going to be jabbering away incessantly about it, and you have to wonder if he'll be able to tune out that voice.