Image: Left/Wikipedia/Right/Press Office/NY Gov
Through his PitCCh In Foundation, Sabathia joined public agencies and sports organisations to fund the $11 million Harlem Field of Dreams at Brigadier General Charles Young Playground. The $11 million project drew on several funding sources, according to a 2025 press release from the Office of the Mayor of New York City. Roughly $7.5 million came from law enforcement asset forfeiture funds from the New York and New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, in partnership with the New York City Police Department and the New York City Police Foundation. Earlier improvements in 2023 included new asphalt and fencing for the main basketball court, repairs to three basketball courts, and the conversion of one court into a soccer pitch. The field house bathrooms are also set for upgrades with $2.5 million in public funding.
CC Sabathia, the former New York Yankees pitcher, has helped transform a dilapidated dirt field in Harlem into a place where children can play. The renovated field now accommodates five sports, offers free youth programming, and honours a remarkable figure in American military history. Here is how the project was paid for, what the new field offers local families, and why the history of the playground and its surroundings matters to the neighbourhood. Additional contributions came from Sabathia’s PitCCh In Foundation, Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association Youth Development Fund, the National Football League Foundation Grassroots Program, the Cal Ripken Senior Foundation, the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, and the New York City Council. The city plans to offer free youth sports on the new field through the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development’s Saturday Night Lights program, which the release describes as a way to give young people safe places to play while building trust between law enforcement and communities. The field is part of an upstream approach to public safety that invests in free programming to keep young people engaged when they are not in school.
