Put a (bloody) sock in it, you idiot

So, you're a multimillion dollar MLB power pitcher who, in the postseason, had to have an ankle tendon tied into a monkey's paw, surgery to fix it in the off-season, and after a few disappointing starts, need to go on the 15-day disabled list because of pain in self-same ankle. You'd be nervously quiet, right? Certainly focused on your rehab, and not on some opposing team's manager.

Yes, you would. But you're not The Drama Queen.

On the WEEI program, Schilling said, "When you're playing a team with a manager who somehow forgot how the game is played, there's problems. 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 a hundred games a year, because this idiot makes us do stuff like this.' They were saying this on the field."

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

Though only two players were hit by pitches in Sunday's game -- both by Boston's Bronson Arroyo -- the benches cleared twice, once when a pitch by Tampa Bay's Lance Carter went toward the head of David Ortiz. In the first two games of the series, Tampa Bay pitchers hit three batters and Boston pitchers two. "I can assure you that we're not throwing at anybody's head or anybody's ear," Piniella said last night. "We just want to play baseball, whether it's against Boston or any other team.

Um, Curt. I gotta tell you, the idea that a group of Tampa Bay players walked up to you in the middle of a brawl and confided that they think their manager is an idiot is, well, not very plausible.

And who knew Lou Piniella was such a sensitive old coot.

In his statement yesterday, he said: "Forget how the game is played? I have forgotten more baseball than this guy knows.

"On the idiot subject, I'm appalled he would actually say something like that. I had a meeting with my team and to a man they denied it. He's questioning my character and integrity, and that is wrong. He's never played for me, never really spoken to me, so he really doesn't know what I stand for."

Piniella also said in his statement: "If I were Curt, I would be really embarrassed at the cheap shot he took and get the story correct. I'll tell you I've always admired his pitching ability and competitiveness, but I can honestly tell you I've lost a lot of respect for him. I'm looking forward to talking to Curt myself and get this matter cleared up."

What I find so amusing in all of this is the idea that a Red Sox pitcher is crying foul when another team's pitchers plunks a couple of plate-crowding Sox hitters. Given the track record of his team, Schilling really ought to shut his proverbial pie hole.