When New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia was growing up in the Bay Area, he was about eight years old when his childhood hero, Oakland A’s ace Dave Stewart, visited his local Boys & Girls Club — a moment that the younger man cherishes to this day and says inspired his own dedication to giving back.
Along with his wife, Amber, Sabathia launched the PitCCh In Foundation to help children and will further support that effort through a new collaboration with MindMeet. It’s a new platform connecting high achievers in various fields with curious fans or, as the website calls them, “knowledge seekers.” The fees collected to facilitate the digital interactions or in-person meetings made possible through the site are donated to charity.
For Sabathia, who will hold his first MindMeet on Sept. 25, those proceeds will help children living in the inner city.
“You don’t have to be in the same room to meet your hero anymore,” Sabathia said. “Using this technology, you can reach people all over the world and hopefully have the same impact.”
His foundation’s signature program is a donation of backpacks full of school supplies, including a recent partnership with State bags. The organization has passed out more than 35,000 over the years in his native California and his new home of New York.
While Sabathia has been helping the Yankees chase a playoff berth — he returns from a short disabled list stint on Saturday against the Red Sox — his mother, Margie, spearheaded the backpack distribution effort in California, which occurred earlier this week for the opening of school out west.
Sabathia and Amber will attend the parallel New York City distribution when school starts after Labor Day.
“The assemblies are a lot of fun,” he said. “I enjoy going and getting the school year started off cool.”
MindMeet is Sabathia’s first tech partnership, although he’s been an avid consumer. He said he’s always tried to have the newest and coolest gadgets and has been using wearable heart monitors to guide his training for years.
“I tailor my workouts around that,” he said. “I do a boxing workout in the offseason that’s all around just my heart rate. Whenever it goes down, just getting back up and getting ready to go.”
Now, Sabathia is glad that digital media technology can help him try to make a greater impact. Asked if he expects to use MindMeet to share mostly stories about his baseball career or his childhood journey, he replied, “I hope it’s all of it,” adding: “I’m open for anything, so whatever fans want to talk about.”
That meeting with Stewart — short but “a huge deal for me,” Sabathia said — still guides his charitable ethos.
“That’s something I still remember,” Sabathia said. “That’s all it took for me. It made me want to be able to give back and do that for another kid, which led me to start this foundation. If I can show up somewhere or somebody can see me on MindMeet and have that same effect that he had on me, then I think it’s all worth it.”