CC Sabathia participated in a Subway sandwich eating competition this evening, misunderstanding the “Subway Series” term that is always applied to the Yankees’ and Mets’ bi-annual interleague series. Sabathia, who wasn’t scheduled to pitch this weekend, went to Harlem on Friday afternoon to take part in the annual New York Competitive Eating Subway Series, a competition that faces off top sub sandwich eaters from around the New York area with each other.
Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi had been wondering all weekend where his ace was and finally got word on Sunday afternoon that Sabathia was at a Subway eating contest and was doing pretty well. Upon finding out, Girardi gave CC a quick, mid-game pep talk via phone call urging the pitcher to “shove those subs down your m0uth as fast as possible.” However, the weekend didn’t end in jubilation for CC as he lost in the final round to Frank “The Vacuum” DiLorenzo, a Brooklyn resident who ate 10 Subway foot-long sandwiches in 15 minutes. Sabathia topped out at nine and a half sandwiches in the final round.
“I don’t get what the big deal is,” Sabathia said at the winners’ ceremony for the Competitive Eating Subway Series. “When a reporter told me that we had the Subway Series coming up next, I naturally thought he was talking about an eating competition of Subway sandwiches. So, like any man of my girth, I decided to take a quick break from the team and enter the contest, which I thought I could win. I guess I couldn’t, since the competition was so fierce. I can eat a lot of Subway but The Vacuum is a animal, he simply can’t be beaten.”
