New York Yankees and the Childish Feud Between C.C. Sabathia and Jim Rice

New York Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia started a feud that Jim Rice drove to extremely childish levels.

The rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox has always brought out some memorable moments. For Yankees fans, the names Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone are two examples of sweet memories between the two. For Yankees haters, there is the comeback from 3-0. It’s the most storied rivalry in sports and always good for great baseball.

Unfortunately, it also has brought out the worst in both teams. It’s not hard to remember the brawl that included Don Zimmer flying out of the New York dugout to take a shot at Pedro Martinez. There have been many confrontations between the two teams. Tough rivalries bring that out as well.

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This past week, it got to a particular low of childishness. It started after C.C. Sabathia pitched his game. In the first game, Eduardo Nunez laid down a bunt in his first at bat. Sabathia has a bad knee, and he went to field the bunt, but made a bad throw to first base.

After the game, Sabathia was none too happy about it (per Scott Lauber of ESPN):

"“It’s kind of weak to me,” Sabathia said. “It is what it is. It just shows what they got over there.”"

Nunez acknowledged that the team was aware of Sabathia’s bad knee, but he has to try and get on base any way he can.

Whether the play was on to exploit his knee or not, that is baseball. Bunting is part of the game whether C.C. likes it or not. It’s not weak, it’s good strategy. If you don’t like it, make the play. The Sox did nothing wrong by employing a bunt there. Granted, we see more bunting in the National League, but it is a fine play and Sabathia shouldn’t blame the other team.

However, that is no excuse for the response. Jim Rice, former outfielder for Boston and Hall of Famer, was asked about the situation on the post game show, and here was his response (per Mike Mazzero of the NY Daily News):

"“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.”"

To his credit, Sabathia seemed to laugh off the comment and actually agreed that he was fat. That doesn’t excuse Rice’s comments. It’s inappropriate to fat-shame people. Derogatory comments have no place. For all Rice knows, Sabathia could really struggle with it. Is Rice perfect? No he isn’t. He has no right to insult anyone in that way. You want to address his comments and how they relate to baseball? Fine. Don’t use it to insult the man’s weight.

Stay classy, Boston.

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The whole thing was just silly, driven to new lows by the guy from Boston. Stay above that stuff, it’s not worth it.

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