CC, Dellin still pitching in for communities

The Player’s Alliance has always emphasized the importance of giving back to communities through baseball and beyond it. And at Mulally Park, a South Bronx green space directly behind the Yankee Stadium outfield, CC Sabathia helped the nascent organization of Black baseball players and advocates take its first steps toward its lofty goals.

The former Yankee ace, joined by his longtime teammate Dellin Betances, spent a chilly afternoon handing out supplies for the season like masks, hand sanitizer, and food boxes, as well youth baseball equipment for young players they can break in before spring. It is the first stop of a two-month, multi-city tour in partnership with “Pull Up Neighbor,” a Black-owned community response team Sabathia partnered with in October to provide PPE and voter education resources before the 2020 election.

“This initiative came from the money that the guys donated their salaries when they decided to sit out,” Sabathia said, referring to the strikes and demonstrations across baseball in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man.

“This is what we came up with.” The now-retired pitcher, who is set to be the subject of an HBO film on December 22, said he would join the tour in Coney Island today. As “Pull Up Neighbor” traverses the continental US, the final stop will be in his hometown of Vallejo, Calif.

Though the Yankees and the Food Bank of New York joined the Bronx effort, players well outside the

New York market also got involved.

Justin Dunn, a rookie pitcher with the Seattle Mariners, unloaded the heavy boxes from the long black truck holding supplies, then once the unloading was done, raced out from the Bronx to the airport so he didn’t miss his flight back home.

Betances, who grew up between nearby Washington Heights and the Lower East Side — two neighborhoods and a quick drive away — was grateful for a chance to give back to the neighborhood.

“Anybody who needs something,” said the Mets reliever of their aims. “They’re doing this all over the country. So it’s a beautiful thing.”

Curtis Granderson, a co-founder and president of The Players Alliance, further emphasized the importance of holistic change.

“In order to institute significant changes during this time, we need to be able to pull up to as many Black communities as possible to help give folks the resources they need, whether it be food, aid, supplies, and of course, access to baseball equipment to play our great game,” Granderson said in a statement.

The Players Alliance hopes to see Black Americans better represented in the sport on all levels, from coaching, to front offices, and of course, the playing field. Though that remains central to their mission, changing the field won’t happen overnight, and with a looming second (or third) COVID-19 wave across the country, there were bigger issues at hand.

“You know, with the pandemic right now, it’s a tough time,” said Sabathia. “We just doing whatever we can to help people out.