CC Sabathia gives it his all until the very end

CC Sabathia walked into Yankee Stadium's interview room with his left arm in a sling Friday, 16 hours after shuffling off the mound in pain following the 58,692nd and final pitch of his major league career.

That powerful left shoulder — which earned six All-Star appearances, the 2007 AL Cy Young Award and possibly a spot in the Hall of Fame — finally had given out.

"I think it's just kind of fitting," he said. "I threw until I couldn't anymore."

His burly body — 6-6 and at least 300 pounds — had echoed the decision he announced last winter.

No second thoughts about retirement following 19 major league seasons. No temptation for more, the 39-year-old explained to his wife.

"I told Amber last night that this was the best way for it to end for me because of the way I've been feeling, loving the bullpen, jogging out, feeling pretty good, I feel like about July of next year I'll be like, 'I think I can pitch,' " he said.

He dislocated a joint in his pitching shoulder during the eighth inning of New York's Game 4 loss to Houston on his 17th pitch, then pushed his arm through three more before the torment became too great. He was dropped from the Yankees' AL Championship Series roster Friday before Game 5 and replaced by righthander Ben Heller.

"I was in a pretty good amount of pain last night and today. Waking up, I didn't sleep that good," Sabathia said. "It's pretty sore and the pain has been pretty intense since that pitch."

Tributes came from throughout baseball. His arm might have betrayed Sabathia, but teammates and opponents spoke of his heart.

"CC is such a big man and big personality of a big man," said Houston manager AJ Hinch, who caught Sabathia during spring training with Cleveland in 2003. "If he wanted to stay as a lefthanded reliever, teams would line up to let him keep pitching."

Sabathia finished with a 251-161 regular season record with 3,093 strikeouts. He announced before the season that this was going to be his last year, and he made four trips to the injured list caused by his balky right knee.

After earning his fourth save this postseason Tuesday, the one that clinched the NL pennant for Washington, Daniel Hudson had an admission:

Washington acquired him from Toronto at the July trade deadline as one of three main pieces to revamp their historically bad bullpen. They planned on using him as a setup man, but he succeeded right away, stranding nine of his first 10 inherited runners.

Closer Sean Doolittle suffered a knee injury in August and landed on the injured list. Manager Dave Martinez needed to replace him, so he tapped the hot hand.

"I know the ninth inning's a different beast. I get it," Martinez said.