CC Sabathia and his wife Amber hosted the 6th Annual Golf Classic at Alpine Country Club in Demarest, New Jersey, raising $450,000 for the PitCCh In Foundation with help from a lineup of New York sports legends. Gary Sheffield, Victor Cruz, J.R. Smith, Ja Rule, Chris Young, and Ron Harper all turned out for the tournament, which blended on-course competition with a live DJ, food, refreshments, and a post-event cocktail reception.
The total marks a dip from the inaugural Golf Classic, which raised $600,000 for the foundation, according to amNewYork. This year's event also debuted a new competitive wrinkle: Sabathia's Shootout, a 48-player format that crowned Team Anderson, led by nine-time MLB All-Star Gary Sheffield, as champions. Sheffield's win secured his squad a trip to Baha Mar, per the same report.
A Career Built for the Hall of Fame
Sheffield himself brought serious pedigree to the fairway. Over 22 MLB seasons, he racked up 509 home runs, 1,676 RBIs, and nine All-Star selections, according to Wikipedia, and he spent three of those seasons in pinstripes with the Yankees from 2004 to 2006.
Sabathia's own résumé is why this tournament carries extra weight this month. He won the 2007 Cy Young Award, spent 11 seasons with the Yankees in the Bronx, earned ALCS MVP honors, and helped New York win the 2009 World Series, per the amNewYork report. He also recorded his 3,000th career strikeout in pinstripes, made three All-Star teams, and entered the Hall of Fame wearing a Yankees cap after being named a first-ballot inductee in 2025. Baseball-Reference's account of the 2025 Hall of Fame election puts numbers behind that honor: Sabathia received 342 votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America for an 86.8% selection rate, comfortably clearing the 75% threshold candidates need for Cooperstown.
Across 19 seasons with Cleveland, Milwaukee, and New York, Sabathia won 251 games and struck out 3,093 batters, surpassing the 3,000-strikeout mark, according to Cooperstown Cred. Long before he landed in the Bronx, Sabathia showed off that workhorse reputation during his 2008 Cy Young title defense in Cleveland, when a midseason trade sent him to the Milwaukee Brewers. He went 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA and seven complete games over 17 starts down the stretch, propelling Milwaukee to its first postseason berth in 26 years, per FanGraphs.
The Foundation Behind the Fairway
The Sabathias founded the PitCCh In Foundation in 2008 to give back to the communities that shaped them, and the 501(c)(3) nonprofit now aims to enhance the lives of inner-city youth through educational and athletic programming, according to the amNewYork report. Its offerings include the All-Star Baseball Clinic, a free, year-round camp for kids, along with the Youth Backpack Program and a field renovations initiative that restores baseball and athletic fields around the country. Those programs reach youth in Vallejo, California, Cleveland, Ohio, and the Bronx, New York.
The backpack program alone has delivered more than 36,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to low-income elementary students in Vallejo and the Bronx since it launched, per MLB.com. Beyond the Golf Classic, the foundation also co-hosts an annual Celebrity Softball Game at Yankee Stadium in partnership with the New York Yankees Foundation, according to the PitCCh In Foundation. The Yankees organization has also backed the cause directly, presenting a $250,000 donation to PitCCh In in September 2025 to honor Sabathia's Hall of Fame induction.
A Storied Course 12 Days Before Monument Park
Alpine Country Club itself carries its own history. The 18-hole course was built in 1928 by renowned architect A.W. Tillinghast, who carved the layout out of Jersey Palisades rock formations and reportedly called it the most difficult construction project of his career, according to Top 100 Golf Courses.
The timing of this year's tournament lines up with a major milestone for Sabathia in the Bronx. The Yankees will retire his No. 52 jersey and unveil his plaque in Monument Park on September 26, 2026, ahead of a home game against the Baltimore Orioles.
Sabathia has stayed visible in New York sports circles well beyond the ballfield this year. With his No. 52 ceremony now just days away, this year's Golf Classic offered another reminder of how thoroughly Sabathia's Bronx legacy and his charitable footprint have become intertwined.
