Published: January 31, 2008 03:19 am            

Sabathia joins elite group

Cleveland lefty is all smiles at Warren Spahn Award Gala

GUTHRIE - A trip to Oklahoma in January might cause many people cringe, but for C.C. Sabathia it was quite the opposite. The Cleveland Indians 6-foot-7 left-hander was all smiles as he accepted the 2007 Warren Spahn Award Wednesday night at the Scottish Rite Temple in Guthrie.

“I was signing the pitchers slab and I saw Johan (Santana) and Randy (Johnson) and all those guys, it definitely means a lot to be recognized,” Sabathia said. “I think this award is special because this is for everybody, National League and American League, so to be recognized as the best left-hander in the league feels good.”

Sabathia joins an elite group of southpaws that have claimed the award, presented annually to baseball's best left-handed pitcher by the Oklahoma Sports Museum.

The 2007 AL Cy Young winner went 19-9 last season and helped the Indians reach the AL championship series before losing to the Boston Red Sox in seven games. He posted career bests in wins, ERA (3.21) and strikeouts (209) and led the major leagues in innings pitched with 241.

Sabathia was the headliner for the event which drew about 500 people for a night filled with stories and awards celebrating our nation’s past time.

Joe Simpson, a Norman-native and TBS game analyst for the Atlanta Braves for the past 15 years, received the Bill Teegins Excellence in Broadcasting Award in front of large crowd of family and friends.

“I had the pleasure of meeting and working with him briefly, and it was a pleasure, I respected his hard work and professionalism, so to be somehow associated with that is indeed a great honor,” Simpson said about the late broadcaster, who died in a 2001 plane crash.

Simpson, a former big leaguer and OU star, thanked his supportive family and kept the audience smiling with several humorous big league tales, including the night he helped Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry earn his 3,000th career strikeout.

Ferguson Jenkins, a former Guthrie resident and Oklahoma Sports Museum co-founder, was also on hand to honor high school athletes. The Hall of Fame pitcher honored five softball players and five baseball players with the Ferguson Jenkins Outstanding Student Athlete Award, given to outstanding high school athletes who show great character and excel athletically and scholastically.

Oklahoma Christian Academy senior catcher Cody Painter was among those to receive the award, after batting .425 and earning a spot in the Sunbelt Classic last year.

Oklahoma Sports Museum President Richard Hendricks said he was pleased with the ninth annual Warren Spahn Awards Gala. He said the event was a success due to the presence of a pair of outstanding award winners, a group of generous supporters and nice weather. Last year, Johan Santana, the 2004 and 2006 winner, was unable to attend the event.

“We appreciate everyone coming and being a part of this and we enjoyed the opportunity to honor the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time, Warren Spahn,”Hendricks said.

The Spahn award was created in 1999 and named after the late Oklahoma resident whose 363 wins are the most of any left-hander in major league history. Other past recipients include Randy Johnson (1999-2002), Andy Pettitte (2003) and Dontrelle Willis (2005).

        

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