
When CC Sabathia signed the contract shown above, baseball season for his junior year in high school had not yet begun. Though he held great promise, no one would dare envision the level of performance he’d reach by the end of his time at Vallejo High School in California. In 45 2/3 innings he struck out 82 batters while allowing only 14 hits. He went undefeated for the Apaches and was named the top high school prospect in Northern California by Baseball America.
The same month he graduated from Vallejo, the Cleveland Indians made him their first-round selection in the 1998 amateur draft. Three years later he was a 17-game winner and runner up to Ichiro Suzuki for the AL Rookie of the Year.
Entering the 2019 season, Sabathia needs just 14 strikeouts to reach 3,000. Of the 16 men who’ve hit the plateau 14 are in Cooperstown. Only Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling are not. The 2007 Cy Young winner and 6-time All Star, Sabathia is also four wins shy of 250 career victories.