Word war too: Schilling takes shots at Piniella

Boston's ace says the Rays manager has lost his team. Piniella says Schilling should worry about his pitching.

By MARC TOPKIN
Published April 27, 2005

[AP photo] "The problem is when you're playing a team with a manager who somehow forgot how the game is played, there's problems," —Curt Schilling

[AP photo] "I think he should just concern himself with pitching and forget making comments about anybody else." —Lou Piniella

TORONTO - Curt Schilling had little to do with Sunday's scuffles between the Devil Rays and Red Sox, but on a Tuesday radio show he took some big shots at Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella.

"The problem is when you're playing a team with a manager who somehow forgot how the game is played, there's problems," Schilling said on Boston radio station WEEI's Dennis and Callahan morning show. "This should have been over a little bit ago.

"Lou's trying to make his team be a bunch of tough guys, and the telling sign is when the players on that team are saying, "This is why we lose 100 games a year, because this idiot makes us do stuff like this.' They (Rays players) said that on the field."

When informed of the comments after Tuesday's 7-5 loss to Toronto, Piniella said Schilling - off to a rough start at 1-2 with a 7.13 ERA - should be more concerned with his own problems.

"I think he should just concern himself with pitching and forget making comments about anybody else. I think he'd be better served," Piniella said.

"I don't think I've forgotten how to play the game. I know exactly how the game should be played, and why. Quite frankly, I'm disappointed in his comments, very disappointed in his comments."

As for Schilling's claim that Piniella's players were blaming him?

"Go talk to the players," Piniella said. "I don't think they'd say that. I know you wouldn't get one to say that."

Schilling, a weekly guest on the popular talk show, also blasted Rays TV announcer Joe Magrane, calling him "a frickin' idiot."

Schilling, 38, was unhappy with comments Magrane made during the Pax broadcast of Sunday's bench-clearing incident, when he said it was "shocking" that Schilling was "running his mouth again," and that Schilling was "too old for this" and that he "threw his walker down and tried to make his way out there." ESPN included Magrane's analysis in its highlights Sunday night and Monday.

"He's an idiot. He's a frickin' idiot. The funny part about that is a guy whose career is over at 24-25 (actually 57-67). He was a sub-.500 pitcher ... but getting on my health when he was done at 25 (actually 31) and I had my best years after I was 34, I mean there's kind of an irony there I guess, I don't know," Schilling said.

"But, you know, Joe Magrane (was a) tool when he played, and he is now. I mean, he's the kind of guy when you're in the clubhouse and the game's on, you turn the sound down. It's tiring to listen to, and it's the same way when he played. But you expect that from people like Joe. That's how he was when he played. He was an idiot."

Magrane was aware of Schilling's unhappiness because of multiple calls from Boston media but said the comments - "really half tongue-in-cheek stuff" - did not warrant a controversy, much less an apology.

"While the notion of verbal sparring with Curt Schilling might be fascinating to me, it's not something I'm going to engage in," Magrane said.

"I've gotten a number of calls to go on Boston radio, but the game's about the players on the field, I don't want to be a distraction. I was describing the action as I saw it in my job as an analyst, and I'll leave it at that. But I'm a Devil Rays announcer, not a Red Sox announcer. ...

"It's a nonstory; he's basically making it a story. But I'm not going to apologize for it, either."

[Last modified April 27, 2005, 11:02:48]