Joba done chasing big leagues
CLEVELAND — A decade after midges attacked him on the mound at what was then Jacobs Field, Joba Chamberlain has deleted any attempt at trying to get back to the big leagues from his mind.
In a conversation Wednesday with The Post about his midges memories, Chamberlain was asked if he had one more try to get back to the big leagues in him.
“No, it’s time to be a dad,’’ the 32-year-old Chamberlain said. “Karter is in junior high and obviously this year I got to see him play a lot. It was fun to watch. We went to Cooperstown [for a tournament] and that was fun for the boys.’’
Karter, 11, is a pitcher like his dad, but Joba is glad that his son isn’t pitching a lot.
“That’s a good thing,’’ Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain is remembered for his run-in the midges in Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS, which turned out to be the final days of Joe Torre’s managerial gig with the Yankees, who lost that series to the Indians.
Yet, the career that is over started on Aug. 7, 2007, with a splash so loud the baseball universe couldn’t take its eyes off the gas-throwing right-hander with an electric slider. So impressive was the 21-yearold Chamberlain that Jason Giambi was among Yankee players who believed they were watching Mariano Rivera’s eventual replacement.
A lightning rod, Chamberlain was caught in the middle of the Yankees brass being divided on whether he was a starter or a reliever in 2008 and 2009 and implemented the “Joba Rules.’’
Of the 385 big-league games Chamberlain appeared in, 43 were starts. He left the Yankees via free agency for the Tigers in 2014. From there he drifted to the Royals and Indians, who released him on July 3, 2016.
Chamberlain went to spring training with the Brewers in March but didn’t make the team.
During the final days of Chamberlain’s final season with the Yankees (2013) he got involved with a group that opened American Whiskey, a bar/restaurant located in Manhattan, a block from Madison Square Garden. Since then American Whiskey opened in Las Vegas and will debut in Nebraska next year.