SEATTLE — When C. C. Sabathia plopped down on a sofa next to several of his teammates in the visitors’ clubhouse, they were soon paying rapt attention to a biography of Nolan Ryan on the television in front of them.
As it chronicled Ryan’s rise into a intimidating, dominating force, the Yankees were slackjawed to learn how Ryan relished regularly brushing back hitters, or how he once threw 232 pitches in a game and that his last pitch in baseball, at age 46, was a 96-mile-per-hour fastball.
It was hard to imagine any of the Yankees appreciating it more than Sabathia, who understands well the demands of a workhorse.