Yogi Berra, noted baseball philosopher, once said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Funny guy, Yogi.

C.C. Sabathia was robbed at gunpoint in a Cleveland hotel room late in the evening of May 16, 2002 by former Cleveland State basketball players Damon Stringer and Jamaal Harris after a night of partying. The next morning, he stared at Yogi's fork through bloodshot eyes. No laughter could be heard.
Sabathia, who will start Game 1 of the AL Championship Series tonight against Josh Beckett at Fenway Park, lost $40,000 in jewelry and $3,200 in cash in the robbery. He was 21, coming off a rookie season in which he'd won 17 games and beaten the 116-win Seattle Mariners in the postseason.

General Manager Mark Shapiro, who would start to rebuild the Indians six weeks after the robbery, had big plans for Sabathia. Getting a 4 a.m. call from Cleveland Police about his star pitcher was not one of them.

"I can honestly say that was a turning point in my life," said Sabathia. "I could have went down that road or the road that I'm on now. I could have just kept getting worse, doing what I was doing, putting myself in bad situations.

"From that day, it was like a light went on. If you want to be a professional athlete, you can't keep doing the things you're doing."

The man who turned on the light and pointed its harsh glare into Sabathia's eyes was his father. He bore the same name as his son, Charles Carsten Sabathia.

"The morning after I got robbed, my mom and dad came out here from California," said Sabathia. After a couple of days, Margie Sabathia returned to her job in Vallejo, Calif. Sabathia's father never left.

Sabathia and his father hadn't spent a lot of time together for several years.

We were close when I was a kid until my folks got divorced when I was 13," said Sabathia. "Then we lost contact."

The senior Sabathia, nicknamed Corky, did not waste words.

"He said I needed to change," said Sabathia. "He was always hard on me. He always told me I would be an All-Star. He was always telling me what he saw in me. He said if I wanted to get there, I needed to change
Telling a rich young professional athlete to change is one thing. Making him change is another.

"He made me change," said Sabathia. "He stayed on me. It was always, Where are you at? What are you doing? Who are you with?' Things like that.

"It was something I needed being 21 years old in the big leagues."

Sabathia has since married. He and his wife, Amber, have two children. In the Indians' press guide, he lists his mother as his hero.

In 2002, he needed his father as well.

"I got a chance to be with him for two years until he passed away," said Sabathia. "I got time to be his son again."

"The knots between them had loosened," said Margie Sabathia. "By the time C.C.'s dad died, those knots were tied up again. I'm glad C.C. didn't get hurt when he got that gun stuck in his face, but there's a reason for everything because it brought him and his dad back together. C.C. and I talk about that all the time."
During those father-son conversations, Corky talked about the Giants building their new ballpark.

"He was looking ahead and saying I just might have a chance to pitch in an All-Star Game there," said Sabathia.

In July, Sabathia worked a one-hit inning of relief at AT&T Park in San Francisco for the American League All-Stars. Corky Sabathia was right. He just didn't get to see it.
When the Indians drafted Sabathia, he'd just finished his senior year at Vallejo Senior High School in Vallejo, Calif. He was 17 when he came to Cleveland for the first time.

Shapiro, farm director at the time, was the first person Sabathia met.

"He took me out to breakfast and told me what was expected of me," said Sabathia.

When the Indians eliminated the Yankees in Game 4 of the AL Division Series on Monday at Yankee Stadium, Shapiro sought Sabathia out amid the clubhouse celebration. The big left-hander had started the series with a victory in Game 1 at Jacobs Field.

"I told him I was proud of him as a person, a man and a baseball player," said Shapiro.

Said Sabathia, "That meant a lot to me."

There is a good chance that Sabathia, 19-7, will win the Cy Young award this year. Beckett, the AL's only 20-game winner, is his closest competition. All of which turns the crank another notch on Game 1 tonight.
When asked about the Cy Young, Indians pitching coach Carl Willis said: "No disrespect to any of the other great pitchers in the league, but I don't think it's close. I don't think it's close."

The Indians have had one Cy Young winner in their history - Gaylord Perry in 1972. Sabathia, however, has talked about one thing only this year - the postseason.

"He wants to take this organization to the next level," said Willis. "He wants to raise a World Series flag. He wants to be at the center of that. I think that's why it's a different feeling when he pitches because these guys know that."
After Sabathia changed off the field, he had to change on it. The story of his transformation from a hot-tempered, umpire-baiting, hard-throwing left-hander to a polished pitcher has been talked about much this year.

"It happened after a start in Oakland," said Sabathia.

That would be Sabathia's annual flop in front of family and friends who make the drive from Vallejo to McAfee Coliseum to see him pitch when the Indians are in town. On this particular day, July 25, 2005, Sabathia allowed eight runs on eight hits in 2 1/3 innings. He walked two and didn't strike out a batter in a 13-4 loss.

It was loss No. 4 in a five-game losing streak.

"In my next bullpen, Carl and [bullpen coach] Louie Isaac changed my mechanics," said Sabathia, "and I just let all that other stuff - the anger, the arguing with umpires - go. I started having fun again."

Sabathia, after one more loss to Seattle, won 10 of his final 11 starts. Manager Eric Wedge swears Sabathia has had "ace" stamped on his forehead ever since.

"It wasn't easy, but he never gave into the fight," said Wedge.

Margie Sabathia still tests her son's temper from time to time.

"I try to aggravate him after a game just to see where his head is at," she said. "I'd tell him 'Dd you see this and that?' He'd tell me, 'It's only a game.'

"Earlier this year, he lost a game, 1-0 [to Boston on July 24]. I'd say 'C.C. come on it's not all your fault.' But he told me, 'What would have happened if I didn't give up that one run?' He's very self critical, but you'd come away saying, 'You know, he's right.'
The responsibilities of fatherhood and marriage calm some players. That is a big part of Sabathia's success, but not all of it. Earlier in the season there was a rumor that he punched a wall after a frustrating game and needed to get his hand X-rayed. The Indians denied it, but it was still written.

"That really made me mad," said Sabathia. "It's so not true. I had no reason to punch a wall."

What came to light is that Sabathia, 27, did everything physically and emotionally to make himself a better pitcher. In a 10-start stretch from July 24 through Sept. 8, he went 4-3 with three no-decisions. He never pitched fewer than six innings nor allowed more than two earned runs. The starts seemed to be produced from one mold by a clean, efficient pitching machine.

He certainly had more successful stretches during the season, but none better showed his ability to pitch consistently well against good competition. A few more runs during that stretch would have guaranteed Sabathia 20 victories, but he kept his emotions banked and his competitiveness sharp. Two of his four victories came over Minnesota's 2006 Cy Young winner Johan Santana.

"By controlling his emotions, C.C. is able to slow the game down," said Willis. "What that allows him to do is throw any pitch at any count at any point of the game. That's been the key this year. I see the same guy every five days. I think you can go back early in his career, while he was a winning pitcher, he didn't fare that well against good teams or other elite pitchers in the league. Now he's getting the best of those pitchers and those teams."

Sabathia, finishing his seventh season with the Indians, seems to be at peace. His game is in order and his family is close. The other day his 4-year-old son, C.C. III, was running sprints with him in the outfield along with teammate Cliff Lee.

"Little C.C. is just like his father," said Margie Sabathia. "He's non-stop. You've got to throw him 15 to 20 pitches before he goes to bed and 15 to 20 pitches before he eats breakfast.

"You know how big his father is. Little C.C. looks right past him and says, 'I want to be as strong as [Travis] Hafner.' Then he says 'I want to hit just like Grady Sizemore.' When he won't eat, we remind him that he has to if he wants to be as strong as Hafner. Oh, my God, he kills that plate."

Sabathia has one more year to play in Cleveland before he becomes a free agent. Will he stay or will he go? Can the Indians afford to keep him?

"This is so not the time to be thinking about personal stuff," said Sabathia. "It's time to be thinking about the team and getting to and winning the World Series."

The Indians have cleared two of the required four hurdles in that journey. The third ascent begins tonight with Sabathia vs. Beckett.

"I expect it to be a good game," said Sabathia. "I expect Beckett to show up with his A game and I expect to be on mine."