Sabathia Is the Biggest Fan of the Raiders

New York Yankees great C.C. Sabathia is known as an elite baseball player, but what many don't know is that he is the Las Vegas Raiders biggest fan.

CC Sabathia probably is the biggest fan in the history of the Las Vegas-Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders in their 63-year history--and in more ways than one.

The 6-foot-6, 290-pound Sabathia, who pitched for 20 seasons in the major leagues for the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee,  and New York Yankees, grew up as a Raiders fan in Vallejo, about 25 miles north of Oakland.

Even after the left-hander won 17 games as a rookie with the Indians in 2001, CC and his dad, Corky, would tailgate before Raiders games at the Oakland Coliseum.

“Tailgating is like the best for me; I love it,” Sabathia said with a huge smile. “I would get jealous when I was driving into Yankee Stadium, and we were playing like the (Boston) Red Sox or something, and people are tailgating, and you see them throwing the baseball around in the parking lot.

“I was like: ‘Man, I wish I was tailgating with these guys right now.’”

Sabathia remained a Raiders fan when they moved to Los Angeles from would drive from Vallejo to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with family and friends in those days to see the Silver and Black play.

Tailgating once again.

“We’d drive down to L.A.,” Sabathia recalled of those days. “We would leave at midnight and get there about 6 o’clock in the morning, tailgate, go to the game, and drive back home. … We also drove to Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego (when the Raiders played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and tailgated there.

“This is something, Lil’ C (his son, Carsten) has done with his kids, taking them to Raiders games, too, and remembering the times we have had out there.”

And Sabathia has remained a huge Raiders fan since they moved to Las Vegas in 2020.

He was all for the move.

“I’m excited that the Raiders are going to Las Vegas just because they are the only team in the NFL that still plays on a baseball field (in Oakland),” Sabathia said at the time. “ not fair to us. As a Raiders fan, I want us to have our own stadium. I think if I lived (in Oakland), I would be more pissed.”

Sabathia the Raiders to Las Vegas.

The Raiders are so aware of his super fandom that Sabathia was invited by to light the Al Davis Memorial Torch before the Silver and Black played the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2023, in Week 17 of last season.

“This is one of the biggest honors of my life,” the 42-year-old Sabathia said on that day.

Even on that Sunday, super fan Sabathia was in the parking lot before the game, tailgating and throwing the football around with his son.

Sabathia compiled a 251-161 record in the majors with the Indians, and Yankees, with a 3.74 earned-run average and 3,093 strikeouts while helping the Yankees win the 2009 World Series, being named the 2007 Cy Young Award winner, the American League Championship Series Most Valuable player in 2009 and participating in six All-Star Games.

However, Sabathia remembers his time rooting for the Raiders as much as anything he did in his major league career.

Sabathia, a true, lifelong fan, said: “Once a Raider, always a Raider. You’ve got to be a diehard.”

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