"CC Sabathia sees the big picture. That's his greatest gift.

Sabathia just got back from a trip to Europe and today in Manhattan will kick off the inaugural "CC Challenge'' that is modeled after TV's "The Amazing Race," which happens to be Sabathia's favorite show.

"This is something different,'' Sabathia said last night at Canz-a-Citi Roadhouse in Murray Hill. He is a partner in the franchise restaurant company. "Everybody does the bowling and golf events. This should be fun.''

Sabathia will be a Yankee for the rest of his career after recently signing a five-year contract extension for $122 million that could be worth as much as $142 million over six years. Keeping him in Pinstripes was essential for the Yankees to have any chance to be in their own Amazing Race. You can't lose your biggest asset. The Red Sox just lost a big one: closer Jonathan Papelbon to the Phillies.

"I'm not going to miss [Papelbon],'' Sabathia said.

Sabathia is a unifying force. There was no way he was going to leave the Yankees.

"I was excited to get that [extension] done,'' he said. "I knew what I wanted to do and everybody knew in the background, it was good to get that off my chest and move forward and not have to worry about anything.''

In typical understated Sabathia style, he announced the extension on his Twitter account and did a video that was shot from his closet in his house in New Jersey."