Yankees' CC Sabathia grateful to wife, mother in emotional Hall of Fame speech

COOPERSTOWN — CC Sabathia stood at the lectern after the video tribute rolled and the glowing words on his National Baseball Hall of Fame plaque were read. It was time to express what this honor meant to him with 54 other members of the immortal club listening behind him.

That included his Class of 2025 teammate, Ichiro Suzuki, a rookie in 2001, just like Sabathia.

“Thank you most of all to the great players sitting behind me,” Sabathia said on Sunday during induction day at Clark Sports Center. “I’m so proud and humbled to join you as a Hall of Famer.

“Even Ichiro, who stole my Rookie of the Year award in 2001,” he cracked.

This was a day for speeches and the usual long list of thanks. Sabathia, Ichiro and former Mets closer Billy Wagner as well as family members representing the posthumous inductees, Dick Allen and Dave Parker, gave their heartfelt thoughts.

Sabathia gave much credit to the special women on his life’s journey, including his mom, Margie, and especially his wife, Amber.

The former Yankees lefty met Amber at a party when he was a junior in high school in California.

“We spent the whole night talking,” Sabathia said. “And that conversation has been going on for 29 years now.”

Sabathia was sitting on his couch at home in New Jersey in January when the phone rang to deliver the first-ballot news. It wasn’t his. It was hers.

“The Hall of Fame knew to call her,” Sabathia said. “I’m known not to answer a call or a text.

“The next day, we drove up to Cooperstown, me behind the wheel and Amber in the front passenger seat like always,” he added. “It’s been a long road from Vallejo, California, and I wouldn’t have made it all this way without the women redirecting me when I got lost.”

The father of four spoke about his mom and Amber spending all night “talking me through my fears” on the phone when he was homesick in 1998 as a new Cleveland minor-leaguer in Burlington, North Carolina.

“When I made my first start in Cleveland, Amber was there wearing the No. 52 jersey,” Sabathia said. “ . . . Amber was there in Milwaukee, pregnant, when I was first traded and nervous to start with a new team [in 2008]. She was there [in 2015] when I rode into rehab . . . She was there a month later when I walked out sober.”

Amber helped him see that the Yankees were the best place for him when he became a free agent. They signed him to a seven-year, $161 million deal before the 2009 season.

Sabathia, who won 251 games in 19 years, spent his final 11 seasons in pinstripes. The last time the Yankees won a championship was in 2009. He won 19 games that year, then started Game 1 in all three rounds of the playoffs, earning ALCS MVP honors along the way.

Derek Jeter — among the Hall of Famers on hand — cited Sabathia in the video tribute for being “the perfect mix of talent and more importantly personality and [having] the ability to block out the noise.”

Sabathia, a six-time All-Star and Cy Young Award winner with Cleveland in 2007, is one of six pitchers in MLB history with at least 250 wins, a .600 winning percentage and 3,000 strikeouts.

Sabathia became the second U.S.-born member of the Black Aces in the Hall of Fame along with Bob Gibson.

“I don’t want to be the final member of the Black Aces, a Black pitcher who won 20 games in the big leagues,” Sabathia said. “And I don’t want to be the final Black pitcher standing here giving a Hall of Fame speech.”

Wagner’s speech included a reference to Sabathia: “CC, you competed with passion and power.”

When Wagner made this elite Hall of Fame club on his 10th and last try via a BBWAA ballot, it marked a victory for the little guys. Not only is he just 5-10, but he’s also the first Hall of Famer to come out of a D-III program, Ferrum College in his native Virginia.

The lefty with a 100-mph fastball — who was a righty until he broke his arm as a kid — finished with 422 saves. He went into the Hall with an Astros cap, his original team. His Mets days were from 2006-09 and included 101 of those saves.

“They always had a great team surrounding me,” Wagner told the crowd, “and that helped me reach this stage today.”