IT'S A COUPLE of days before the New York Yankees play their first spring training game, and Justus Sheffield, Chance Adams and Dillon Tate are seated in chairs in a semi-circle around CC Sabathia in a corner of the clubhouse at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida.
As the Yankees' elder statesman, Sabathia gets two lockers in a corner, away from the traffic that includes players, trainers, clubhouse staff, media members, media relations personnel, interpreters and the occasional coach or front-office member. It's certainly no coincidence that the two lockers on the adjacent wall, before you get to the doorway that leads to the dugout and other offices, belong to Sheffield and Adams.