Sports Radio Interviews

Joba Chamberlain On Being A Starter And The Yankees First Week

Of all the great players that have donned the pinstripes in New York in recent memory, it’s been awhile since the Yankees have had a dominant young pitcher, particularly one that’s risen through the ranks of their own farm system.  Joba Chamberlain seems to be just that for the Yanks. It was apparent when he pitched in the playoffs two years ago as a reliever at just 22 years of age.

In 2008, Joba started 12 games and was a reliever in 30 others.  This year, Joba is a full-time starter.  In his first outing, Joba gave up just one run on five hits in six quality innings, while striking out five batters and walking only one. It’s going to be exciting to see how manager Joe Girardi handle his work load over the course of a long season, but all signs point towards Chamberlain being the real deal. Joba joined ESPN Radio New York on Monday to talk about the Yanks and himself as the 2009 MLB season approaches weekend number two.

On his health and velocity as he gets ready to make his second start this coming Sunday against the Indians:

“You learn real quick when you got a long season ahead of you, especially early in the year when it’s cold and it’s rainy it’s [velocity] not going to be there, which is fine with me. I still went out there and got outs and it was a good sign for me just to be good with my fastball and be consistent and it’s just going to get better from here on out.”

On his reaction to the Yanks start:

“We’re going to be fine. There’s great leaders on this team. There’s going to be bumps through the season where it’s probably going to be worse than this and that’s part of baseball. But we’ve got a great chemistry and nobody’s panicking obviously…”

On what he learned from the experience of getting arrested for DUI this past October:

“It’s a great learning experience. It’s a blessing. You know, people that read it and that’s all they do, they don’t know me as a person and they’re going to judge me off that. That’s part of life and I understand that. But as a young man growing up, everybody in this world makes mistakes and it just so happens that I play for the greatest organization and it gets a lot of coverage. And I understand that and there’s so much that comes along with that.”

Listen here to Chamberlain on ESPN Radio in New York (begins at about the 9:00 mark)

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