There have been recent red flags. There was the TMZ video in mid-August that showed Sabathia screaming and pointing at someone outside a Toronto nightclub at 3 in the morning. A brawl broke out just after Sabathia left in a cab.
“I just flipped out, you know,’’ Sabathia told reporters after the tape was released. “I could have handled it better. …Just a bad decision on my part.”
I happened to have spoken with Sabathia the day after the incident in the visiting clubhouse at the Rogers Centre. For the first time in all my years of knowing him, he was terse when answering questions. Yet, when the news of the tape came out a few days later, I figured it explained his sour behavior.
Then, just two weeks later, there was another bizarre incident. A photo agency offered to sell Sabathia a picture of him standing on the balcony of an Atlanta hotel room, smoking what appeared to be a marijuana joint. Sabathia, attempting to dispel the rumor, posted a photo on his Instagram account with hashtags #ItsOnlyACigar and #MiniCigarillos.
“Somebody e-mailed Amber and said they had pictures of me doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing,’’ Sabathia said, addressing reporters. “I wasn’t doing anything I wasn’t supposed to be doing. So that’s why I put that picture out.’’
An incident at Newark Airport last December in which an irate Sabathia and some friends weren’t allowed to board a flight to Jamaica - airport police were briefly summoned - seemed to start this period of strange incidents.