The Hall of Fame pitcher, 43, boarded a restored 1917 vintage train alongside former teammate Dellin Betances to catch the Yankees’ 2026 home opener against the Miami Marlins.
He spent more than a decade as one of the most beloved figures in the Bronx but CC Sabathia had never once ridden the New York City subway. That finally changed on April 4, 2026, when the Hall of Fame pitcher made his long-overdue underground debut in the most fitting way imaginable: aboard a restored 1917 vintage train, headed straight to Yankee Stadium for the team’s home opener.
The moment quickly captured the hearts of baseball fans across the country, offering a rare and refreshingly human glimpse of a legend simply enjoying the city that shaped his legacy.
A New York icon who never took the train
Sabathia arrived in New York in 2009 on one of the largest contracts in baseball history, and the Bay Area native wasted no time becoming a true Bronx hero. He helped deliver a World Series championship that very first season and spent the next decade as a cornerstone of the Yankees rotation. He retired in 2019, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and built a life deeply rooted in New York.
Yet for all those years, the subway the city’s most democratic institution, the great equalizer that carries millions of New Yorkers to work, school and play had remained foreign to him. At 43 years old, that changed in a single afternoon.
Dellin Betances steps in as tour guide
Sabathia did not make the journey alone. Former Yankees relief pitcher Dellin Betances, a Manhattan native who attended high school in Williamsburg and grew up riding the city’s transit system, was the natural choice to guide his old teammate through the experience.
The role came with its own set of surprises. Betances acknowledged it had been roughly 20 years since his last ride, long enough that he had to rediscover a system that had moved on without him. The old MetroCard swiping that defined a generation of New York commuters has since been replaced by modern tap-to-pay technology a small but telling sign of how much the city evolves even when you’re not watching.
Despite the learning curve, the 2 former pitchers navigated the crowded platforms and packed cars with ease, joining the thousands of fans who were making the same pilgrimage to the Bronx on Opening Day.
The 1917 train that made it unforgettable
What could have been a simple first subway ride became something far more memorable thanks to a special addition from the NYC Transit Museum. For the 2026 home opener, transit officials rolled out a fully restored 1917 vintage train known as the Lo-V Nostalgia Ride running directly from 42nd Street-Grand Central all the way to 161st Street-Yankee Stadium.
The century-old cars, lovingly preserved and put back into service for the occasion, gave the trip an almost cinematic quality. Sabathia and Betances rode alongside regular fans, soaking in the noise, the energy and the unmistakable electricity of a New York baseball crowd on its way to the ballpark. For 2 men who spent years generating that same electricity from the mound, experiencing it from the other side offered a perspective that no amount of time in a VIP suite ever could.
Back in the Bronx as fans
The Yankees hosted the Miami Marlins for the 2026 home opener, and Sabathia and Betances were there to take it all in not as athletes, not as executives, but as fans. No private entrances. No luxury boxes. Just 2 legends sitting among the people who had cheered for them for years, watching their old team compete.
For Sabathia, it carried an emotional weight that went beyond baseball. He had given New York some of the greatest moments of his career inside that stadium, and returning as a fan on public transit, no less spoke volumes about his genuine connection to the city and the people who fill those seats every season.
Whether the subway debut becomes a habit remains to be seen. But for one afternoon in April, CC Sabathia finally experienced New York the way most New Yorkers do, and by every account, it was worth the wait.