JERK & THE ‘FAT’

CC admits he’s plump but calls Rice ‘bitter’

CC Sabathia wasn’t about to let “bitter” Jim Rice off the hook for suggesting his eating habits have something to do with limited range on the diamond.

“It’s just funny. He’s right. I’m fat. He won that,” Sabathia said after Rice fat-shamed the Yankees’ 37-year-old lefty during the Red Sox postgame show on Thursday.

Sabathia had called Boston “weak” for bunting against him on Thursday night, and challenged them to a fight after pitching six innings of one-run ball in New York’s 6-2 victory.

“I don’t give a f--k about their reaction,” Sabathia said. “I don’t care what they have to say. I’m out there early every day. If they’ve got something to say, we can meet in center field.”

Rice responded on NESN: “What is he talking about? Bunting is part of the game. You try to get on base any way you can. If you tell him to leave some of that chicken, that donut and that burger weight — maybe his leg will be OK that he can field that baseball. That’s just stupid.”

Sabathia is listed at 6-foot-6, 300 pounds. He has been pitching with a brace on his surgically-repaired right knee.

“I’ve never met him,” Sabathia said of Rice. “I just know this isn’t the first time he’s made negative comments about me. I know he made negative comments about (Derek) Jeter. He just is who he is. I just hope when I’m that age I’m not that bitter.” Sabathia says he wasn’t surprised. “He works for the Red Sox,” Sabathia said. “That’s what you’d expect from my comments and my actions. It is what it is.”

Sabathia’s wife told him about the comments and was “pissed.”

“But it was funny,” he said. “I laughed. I can’t go back and forth with him. It is what it is. I’ve been pitching for 17 years at this weight. Do some research on me before you come out yapping. I’m a fat guy so he’s right. I don’t know what to say.”

Sabathia’s strange feelings on bunting seem to be more about firing himself up than actually being upset about the strategy. He prefers going mano-a-mano as opposed to a hitter trying to get a cheap hit.

“It’s not that it’s out of bounds, I guess,” Sabathia said. “That’s just me. It doesn’t matter who is bunting or who I’m playing. I get pissed when people bunt, period. You’re going to get a reaction out of me. Everybody knows that. And they got the reaction. We could be playing a Little League game. If my son bunts on me, I’m going to cuss him out. That’s just me. So it is what it is. I’ve always been like that. This is nothing new, and I think a lot of people know that.”

Joe Girardi said Sabathia even calls out teammate Brett Gardner when he bunts.

“I think it’s the good that is coming out of CC and why he’s good in these types of games,” Girardi said. “It’s the competitor in him. CC wants to match his best and their best. To me, it’s an old-school mentality. To me, it’s things that you might have heard out of a Bob Gibson or a Nolan Ryan or a Roger Clemens. If you tried to bunt on them in certain situations, they would get angry.

“I don’t think CC is trying to cause a rift or is putting the Red Sox down. I think it’s the competitiveness in CC, who wants to face their best, and he knows there are a bunch of very good hitters over there. He even got to the point where he said he doesn’t like his son to bunt. So maybe he’s becoming part of the analytics world.”

Whatever Sabathia is doing, it’s working. In the final year of his deal ($25 million), he’s 11-5 with a 3.71 ERA. He is 4-0 against the Red Sox and 8-0 following a Yankee loss. Remember, just three weeks ago, Sabathia thought his career might be over because of knee pain. The Bombers will have to consider bringing him back on a one-year deal and at a cheaper rate.

“Yeah, I guess,” Sabathia said when asked if he’s surprised himself with his 2017 campaign. “Just being able to stay healthy and repeat my delivery and kind of get a real feel for what type of pitcher I want to be now. Yeah, it’s been a surprise that it’s come along so quick.”

Sabathia doesn’t know what his future holds, or whether that was his last YankeesRed Sox game ever.

“I want to pitch. I still want to play. I definitely want to play,” Sabathia said when asked about 2018.

For now, he’s just going to enjoy the moment.

“I just go day to day,” Sabathia said. “That’s really just how I live, too. After being in (alcohol) rehab, that’s just how I have to live. That’s kind of how I play, too. I’m just worried about pitching on Tuesday in Baltimore.”

As to when he’ll be out in center, Sabathia jokingly replied: “I’m out there every day for 3:50 stretch.”

Then he laughed.