Is it the media or has C.C. Sabathia just had enough?

In a time where the Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry is starting to get stale... C.C. Sabathia may have stirred it up again last night. Was it REALLY C.C. though.. or was it the media?

Red Sox starter Josh Beckett had already hit Yankees stars Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez last night when Sabathia plunked David Ortiz in the leg. It was the first time that Big Papi has been hit by a pitch thrown by a Yankee... EVER. 162 games, including the Pedro Martinez era when he seemed to target Yankees with a sniper rifle.

David Ortiz walks down to first base after being hit by a
 Sabathia pitch. - Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

The plunking came in the last game of a series that the Red Sox would ultimately sweep the Yankees, but the controversy started in the first game when, Ortiz, after smacking a home run, did a little spin move and flipped his bat towards the Yankees dugout. What followed the flip was a virtual call to arms by the New York Sports Yappers. Michael Kay, for one, spent the majority of his ESPN Radio show the following day going on and on about how the Yankees should have retaliated. They had been shown up and they did not respond. Previously in the same game, John Lester had hit two Yankees, including taking slugger Mark Teixeira out of the game with a bone bruise on his right leg. Kay complained and came up with scenarios where Ortiz should be drilled for the "show up" in that night's game by A.J. Burnett. It was an interesting debate but Kay stretched into something far bigger than what it was. Yanks Manager, Joe Girardi was the only team member that mentioned it after the game and all that he said that he "didn't care for it". What else could he say? That it was just Big Papi being Big Papi? Of course not, as the skipper you have to stand up for your team but was Joe sending a message to Burnett? If it was a message, Burnett didn't get it because he didn't drill Ortiz.

David Ortiz, amongst the MLB players anyways, may be the most "well-liked" player in all of baseball. That's probably why he has never been thrown at by a Yankee before. Yet, he was hit last night by Sabathia.

Did the media drum this up? Ortiz seems to think so. In a post game interview in the visitors locker room he said the following: "It's going to be just Papi talking, and if you don't like it, just get the (bleep) out of here, I want to thank you guys -- not all of you, most of you -- for the stuff today. I finally got hit (by the Yankees). I hope you're happy. I'm done."

Has the rivalry fizzled out so much that the media took this opportunity to try and stir up a fervor? Did C.C. Sabathia just say "enough is enough"???

The Red Sox break of the nearly a century old "curse" by winning the World Series took the wind out of the rivalry. There is a real sense of it being gone in a way. A rivalry that many call the "biggest in ALL of sports." I disagree by the way, there's a little rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State that trumps every rivalry I know of, but that's another debate for another day. The excitement of a Red Sox - Yankees just isn't there anymore. The media still tries to force feed us with the hype and promotion of their broadcasts... but that IS their job.

I agree with Ortiz in a way, but on the other hand I am kind of glad in a way that a pitcher took matters into his own hands. There seems to be a trend where the payback and retribution has been taken out of the game. That's what I grew up watching, if you hit one of ours, we will hit two of yours. It was just part of the game. Of course, just like Michael Kay said MANY times on Wednesday, "I am in no way advocating throwing at some one's head, just drill him in the ribs."

Time will tell if this plunking is the catalyst of the often heated rivalry being restored. We all know that Kay and the rest of the talkers in the media will do their best to keep it relevant.

#STSW