CC Sabathia opens up about alcohol abuse, seeking treatment before Yankees playoff

CC Sabathia stunned his teammates with the announcement in October, just before the New York Yankees would play the Houston Astros in a wild-card playoff game, that he would be entering a rehabilitation program for alcohol abuse.

On Friday, Sabathia spoke about his drinking habits and making the decision to enter rehab on “Good Morning America.”

“It was the last day of the season. That weekend I had started drinking and thought nobody was paying attention,” Sabathia said of the Yankees’ final regular-season series in Baltimore against the Orioles. “I was isolated by myself, stayed in my room the whole weekend .... I woke up and just felt like I needed help.”

“It was a tough decision to make because I felt like I was leaving my teammates, but I definitely needed the help to be a better husband, father, teammate, player.”

Sabathia finished the year with a 6-10 record and 4.73 ERA after winning his last start of the season against the Boston Red Sox on Oct. 1. In the interview on “Good Morning America,” Sabathia said he made the decision to enter rehab on Oct. 4.

Sabathia wasn’t expected to pitch in the playoff against the Astros, which the Yankees lost, 3-0, but the news came as a shock to the team.

“Clearly there has been a number of occurrences that led him to come to this type of decision that’s necessary, but those incidents are personal to him,” Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said at the time. “I was not expecting that situation to come my way yesterday, but it did.”

In August, Sabathia was present at a street fight outside of a Toronto nightclub following a Yankees win over the Blue Jays.

The 6-foot-7, 285-pound hurler said he realized he was an alcoholic three years ago and began self-managing his drinking, though he never drank before a game.

“In 2012, I kind of came to the realization I was an alcoholic,” Sabathia said. “I was kind of battling it without any help, I would relapse, I’d go two or three months at a time sober and then I would just relapse.”

“I’d go on these weekends when I thought no one was paying any attention and I would get in the hotel room and drink out of the minibar, pretty much everything.”

Follow Matt Wilhalme on Twitter @mattwilhalme