At the location of his still relatively new part-time job, CC Sabathia is his usual chill self. He is sitting in the green room at ESPN’s plush South Street Seaport studios, dressed casually with a black cap, shirt untucked and sneakers.
He is looking into the future, going over what his new life, as a retiree, may be like in half a year.
Sabathia, 38, has a pretty strong grasp of what he wants to do and a definitive view of what he does not.
Sabathia told The Post he desires to continue with the Yankees after his last pitch.
“I want to be a part of the Yankees still, front office, whatever, however we can work that out,” said Sabathia, who, with more than $260 million of Major League earnings, can be choosy.
Yankees executives are very high on Sabathia and would be open to discussing a role, though no talks have begun yet, according to sources.
Meanwhile, Sabathia has already started a burgeoning sports media career. When he is not pitching in this, his final season, he is occasionally serving as a commentator on ESPN TV and radio. It is not heavy lifting, but it is a start.
Last Friday at the South Street Seaport, he was on with Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman on “First Take” and “Jalen & Jacoby,” the ESPN2 show with Jalen Rose and David Jacoby, as well as a couple of radio programs. Next year, Sabathia could do more with ESPN, but that is not yet definite.
He would like to continue his podcast, “R2C2,” with his buddy, the sportscaster Ryan Ruocco. The podcast is housed under LeBron James’ Uninterrupted company after leaving Derek Jeter’s Player Tribune umbrella.
Sabathia is also interested in calling Yankees games, but there is a major hitch.
“I would love to do YES,” Sabathia said. “I think me and Ruocco would be fun doing the games on the air.”
However ….
“I’m not wearing a suit,” the 6-foot-6, 300-pound Sabathia said. “Why do I need to wear a suit to talk about baseball? It is f–king stupid to wear a suit. Guys on the field aren’t wearing dress clothes. People in the stands aren’t wearing dress clothes. It makes no sense. If they let me go up there in a Jordan sweatsuit, I’ll do games all day.”
YES Network has its full complement of analysts and is not thinking about next year just yet. If Ken Singleton retires, it could open a spot, though YES’ president of production and programming, John Filippelli, has already lined up some candidates with Jeff Nelson, Willie Randolph and David Wells receiving some run this season.
YES also has its main play-by-player, Michael Kay, along with current analysts David Cone, Paul O’Neill and John Flaherty.
Filippelli laughed a little when told about Sabathia’s suit issue. It is premature to fully discuss the idea of Sabathia on YES, but Filippelli thinks Sabathia could be good on games.
“I think his potential is unlimited,” Filippelli said.
Sabathia, though, isn’t limiting himself to just baseball. When his media agent, Mark Lepselter, and ESPN brokered the deal for his in-season TV and radio assignments, the idea was that Sabathia would talk non-baseball.
He is capable of doing so. Sabathia follows sports as closely as the biggest fan, from the NFL to the NBA to soccer.
To find the rhythm of TV, Sabathia will still need to find his way. When he was on with Smith and Kellerman, the host, Molly Qerim, had to wave off the two debating professionals to let Sabathia get a word in.
Sabathia seemed to enjoy his time, but he has an idea for his own vehicle in the future that hearkens back to Fox Sports’ old “Best Damn Sports Show Period.”
“I really like that show, ‘Best Damn,’ that was always a fun show to go on,” Sabathia said. “I would love something like that. Maybe a little more raw. I envision like myself, Gilbert Arenas, Stephen Jackson, just some guys that are going to tell you the truth, just some guys that have been champions, have been at the highest level, but are going to tell you exactly how they feel about a certain situation and they are not going to sugarcoat it so I don’t think that it is an ESPN show.”
Sabathia belted out his big laugh, saying there might be a lot of cussing.
“That might be like a streaming Netflix show,” Sabathia added.
Disney does have ESPN+ and you could see Sabathia possibly one day voicing a baseball version of “Detail,” which is the boutique show that Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning do on their sports for the service.
Sabathia will likely have choices. There are a lot of people working in media and for teams. Both of ESPN’s Sunday night analysts, Alex Rodriguez (Yankees) and Jessica Mendoza (Mets), are advisers. Sabathia could follow that path, too.
After the final pitch of what might be a Hall of Fame career, Sabathia will be home with his wife, Amber, and their four children. He looks forward to that, but he thinks he has more to offer the Yankees — especially the team’s young players.
“I want strongly, for sure, the Yankee thing, wherever that takes me,” Sabathia said before addressing the media aspect. “We will see how it shakes out, podcast and maybe a streaming show.”
Quick Clicks: CBS Sports looked around to replace its “NFL Today” insider Jason La Canfora, but it looks as if it will stay with him. While nothing is official yet, the two sides are negotiating a new deal, sources said. One of the insiders CBS spoke with was NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. Garafolo announced on Instagram he had signed back with NFLN. It is a four-year deal, according to sources. … Filippelli’s YES cleaned up the New York Sports Emmys, winning 13, led by Ian Eagle’s fourth straight for play-by-play. Eagle beat out the Knicks’ Mike Breen, the Islanders’ Brendan Burke and his YES teammates, Ruocco and Michael Kay. Eagle’s Nets broadcast, produced by Frank DiGraci, won for games and event coverage. John Moore won the director category for his work on Yankee games.