Hall of Shamer! Rice puts Sabathia down
Leave it to Jim Rice to have the harshest words in the CC Sabathia versus Red Sox battle. The former Red Sox outfielder — and Hall of Famer — called out Sabathia for being overweight after the lefty complained about Eduardo Nunez bunting against him in the Yankees’ win on Thursday in The Bronx. “What is he talking about? Bunting is part of the game,” Rice said during the Red Sox broadcast on Thursday on NESN. “You try to get on the base any way you can. If you tell him to leave some of that chicken, that donut, that burger weight … maybe his leg will be OK that he can field that baseball. That’s just stupid.” Sabathia chuckled on Friday when the subject came up. “It’s just funny,” said Sabathia, who was told of Rice’s comments by his wife. “He’s right, I’m fat. He won that.”
Sabathia pointed out the two have never met, but that he was aware of Rice’s cantankerous reputation.
“I know this is not the first time he’s made negative comments about me,” Sabathia said. “I know he’s made negative comments about [Derek] Jeter. I just hope when I’m that age I’m not that bitter. That’s incredible.”
And Sabathia wasn’t all that surprised that Rice came after him.
“Not at all,” Sabathia said. “He works for the Red Sox [network], NESN. That’s what you expect from my comments and my actions… I can’t go back and forth with him. I’ve been pitching for 17 years at this weight. Do some research on me before you come out yapping.”
For his part, Nunez said of Rice’s comments with a laugh: “That’s not my opinion.” But he added, “If he’s hurt, go back to the DL. It’s not my problem.”
Sabathia insisted his displeasure wasn’t just directed at Nunez, but anyone who bunts.
“It’s not that it’s out of bounds, it’s just me,’’ Sabathia said. “It doesn’t matter who’s bunting or who we’re playing. I get mad when people bunt. Period. Everybody knows that. … We could play a little league game and my son bunts on me and I’m gonna cuss him out. That’s just me. I’ve always been like that.”
Sabathia added that his anger at Nunez bunting — something he and teammate Andrew Benintendi did against Sabathia on Aug. 19 at Fenway Park — helped spark another impressive performance against the Red Sox.
In four starts against the Yankees’ rivals, Sabathia is 4-0 with a 1.04 ERA.
“I think it is the good that is coming out of CC and wanting to be good in these types of games,” Joe Girardi said. “It’s the competitor in him. CC wants to match his best against their best. To me it’s an old-school mentality.”