For trick-or-treaters, Alpine, New Jersey is a land of plenty.
Some homes hand out $10 gift cards and others give every child an entire unopened bag of miniature candy bars. Some families throw hot dogs and popcorn, while others hire actors to dress up as zombies and walk around the yard for a day.
But even in this revelry of the wealthy, the home of one retired New York Yankee is a notable stop.
Reggie Jackson might be Mr. October. But to trick-or-treaters in northern New Jersey, CC Sabathia is Mr. October 31st.
“CC’s house is the pinnacle,” said Sheldon Neal, a father of two who lives near Paramus. “It’s an amazing dedication to his craft.”
Once a left-handed pitcher, Sabathia played for 19 seasons, 11 of them with the Yankees. His resume puts him on the verge of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
But since retiring in 2019, Sabathia has ditched the pinstripes for a series of increasingly elaborate Halloween costumes, complete with Hollywood-grade makeup, prosthetics, and movie-set-style decorations to match. I started wearing it.
“We’re not kidding here,” Sabathia said. Mr. Sabathia is often unrecognizable in these costumes, except for his 6-foot-6-inch frame. “I think I can get more out of it than the kids.”
Each year, with the help of a small army of makeup and costume artists, members of the Sabathia family become popular pop culture characters. In recent years, Sabathia has dressed up as Vecna from Stranger Things, Shredder from the Ninja Turtles, and Thanos from Guardians of the Galaxy, to name a few.
As a bonus, the Sabathias will personally hand out king-sized candies, similar to those found at movie theaters, to the throngs of candy-seekers.
Mr. Sabathia’s wife, Amber Sabathia, is effectively the executive producer of the operation. She estimates that 2,000 to 3,000 children visit her home each year.
As the numbers continued to grow, certain responses became necessary. Local police are currently blocking the street for the afternoon. And families have implemented a crowd-control waiting system for their children, who begin gathering outside Sabathia School’s gates as soon as school ends.
“It’s like trying to ride the Matterhorn at Disneyland. It’s wild to watch,” said Walter Welsh, a film and TV special effects makeup and costume designer who has been working with the family since 2018. ” he said.
While waiting, families have access to portable restrooms, picnic tables to rest their feet, and carts offering complimentary hot dogs, potato chips, and a variety of cold snacks. Sabathia said she recently started envisioning her home as a “Halloween retreat instead of a trick-or-treating place.”
Eventually, the trick-or-treaters arrive at the Sabathia family’s huge garage, where they are given an almost overwhelming amount of king-sized candy. They are allowed to choose two. And before departure, families will be able to meet Mr. and Mrs. Sabathia and have their photo taken together.
“Oh my God, the Sabathia family. My kids will have that memory for the rest of their lives,” said Rebecca Lapila, a neighboring Demarest resident who waited in line with her children for up to 45 minutes. Ta.
Tucked along the Hudson River in the northeastern corner of the state, Alpine is one of the most luxurious neighborhoods in the greater New York City area, with home prices comparable to the Hamptons, Tribeca, and Greenwich, Connecticut.
Comedian Chris Rock once revealed in a well-publicized episode that his fellow Alpine residents included black superstars such as Eddie Murphy, Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z. . (The punchline was that his neighbor was a particularly well-regarded white dentist.)
Lapira, a real estate agent, used to regularly create a list of celebrity homes in the area for trick-or-treaters, but stopped doing so after some residents objected. She said the Sabathias are the most welcoming of the big-name families and are always on hand to personally greet their many guests.
“The gates of houses in the Alps are closed almost all year round,” Lapira says. “But once a year, on Halloween, the gates open. It’s fun to see how the other half of the population lives.”
Sabathia developed a love for Halloween while growing up in Vallejo, California. He said his earliest Halloween memory is dressing up as Garfield, wearing a flimsy plastic mask, and going to the pumpkin patch with his grandmother.
Later in his childhood, he became obsessed with Michael Jackson, repeatedly watching a VHS tape documentary about the making of “Thriller.”
“The makeup, seeing him go from himself to this monster was so cool to me,” Sabathia said. “Ever since then, I’ve always wanted to do the craziest makeup possible.”
Mr. Sabathia is not a Halloween dilettante. Welsh, a makeup and costume artist, said Sabathia recently surprised him by joking about Rick Baker, a seven-time Academy Award winner for best makeup design but not necessarily famous.
Mr. Sabathia and his wife hit it off. Among the couple’s early dates was a memorable visit to a haunted house in San Diego, where he continued to wince at cheesy jump scares.
“I was so excited,” Sabathia said. “You’re such a big guy, but an actor with a fake chainsaw is scary.”
The family moved to Alpine in 2009 after Mr. Sabathia signed a seven-year, $161 million contract with the Yankees, but soon realized that Halloween in the neighborhood was operating on a different level.
The candy bar was comically large. The performers were walking on stilts outside the house. One family rented a hearse and parked it in their driveway as an elaborate prop of sorts.
“They were like, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood.’ This is what we do,” Sabathia said with a laugh. “I’m very competitive. I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m going to do this.’ ”
Now, the Sabathias are starting to plan for Halloween in August and have started a group chat with a team of experts who will help them realize their vision. In addition to Wales, the team includes celebrity makeup artist Douglas Otero and stylist Ashley Muhammad.
Sabathia declined to disclose the total cost of the installation, saying he did not want to make a “humble brag.” Wales declined to say how much the costume cost, only acknowledging that it was “expensive.”
Welsh, a two-time finalist on the special makeup reality show Face Off, said he spent about 60 hours making Sabathia’s costume last year and an additional 80 hours dressing his wife. The pair, transformed into Vecna and the Demogorgon, a pair of terrifying monsters from Stranger Things, spent hours in the makeup chair, becoming essentially unrecognizable.
“Every year, Amber wants to be the scariest thing,” Welsh said. “She wants the heaviest makeup. If you don’t go harder, she’ll get mad. She wants something more stuck to her.”
This year marks the first time that Sabathia’s children (two in high school and two in college) won’t participate in the family’s Halloween production, and it’s caused Sabathia to feel a little resentful about becoming a parent for a long time. He spoke to himself.
“I don’t know if they completely agreed,” Sabathia said with a sigh. “I think that’s what was forced on them. That’s the reality. I think they’re done with it. I think they got over it a long time ago. But to be honest, we don’t know what they’re doing. I got over it.”
That doesn’t matter, he said. His children can do whatever they want.
While there’s been talk of how much joy the costumes, decorations and candy have brought others, Sabathia stressed that no one is more into it all than he is.
“I’m going to keep dressing up forever, whether people are coming or not,” he said.
