Piniella rips Schilling for 'cheap shot'

[BAMAPHIN 22]

A day after Boston pitcher Curt Schilling used the word "idiot" in criticizing Lou Piniella, the Tampa Bay manager held a team meeting and fired back.

The Red Sox and Devil Rays tangled Sunday, with two-bench clearing scuffles and six ejections. The teams have had trouble in the past, too.

"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 a Boston radio station Tuesday. "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."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/baseball/mlb/04/27/piniella.schilling.ap/index.html

 

[Muck]

It's the truth.

 

[FaninPatsyLand]

I wish Schilling would just shut up, and Piniella should shut up too. This whole going back and forth thing is stupid. Although, the ump behind the plate should be taking some heat for allowing this thing to escalate. If he would have warned both sides after a ball was thrown behind Ramirez (at that point it was obvious they were throwing at people) like he should have, Ortiz wouldn't have been buzzed at the head.

Also, why the h*ll was Francona suspended?? Baseball mentioned the Gerald Williams situation a couple of years back and the history between the teams. Francona was coaching in the minors when Pedro and Williams went at it, he is in no way involved.

 

[Jt0323]

Goof for Piniella!

 

[spydertl79]

I watched that game, the Red Sox were responsible for escalating it and starting it. Bronson Arroyo in particular.

 

[FaninPatsyLand]

I watched that game, the Red Sox were responsible for escalating it and starting it. Bronson Arroyo in particular.

The Red Sox were responsible?? :roflmao:

How about Kazmir drilling Millar and Ramirez LAST YEAR. Then this year he turns around and does it again. I'm happy Arroyo stood up for his hitters.

Also, at least Arroyo hit people the RIGHT way. He hits people in the thigh like you are supposed to. He hasn't come anywhere close to throwing at peoples heads. Carter on the other hand was throwing up at heads, I wish Ortiz went out there and pounded that little punk.

BTW, the Sox and Rays play more than a couple times during the remainder of the season, if something happens in any of those games, this is going to happen again. The suspensions Major League Baseball handed down aren't going to do anything to discourage that.

 

[spydertl79]

Kazmir has NO CONTROL, he's still a developing pitcher. He tried to pitch them inside and missed his spot.

So yeah, I’m a couple of days late with this, but I have a few comments to make about that Sox/Rays brawl game, and actually about the whole series in general.

1). Kazmir drilled Millar & Manny in the first game of that series. I think it’s safe to say that without a doubt these were unintentional. Even Manny had no reaction to being hit, and Manny is very sensitive about being hit. If he had suspected Kaz of trying to hit him, I think he would have reacted somehow.

Besides, everybody knows that Kaz is still working on his control. He’s young, he throws hard, he throws across his body: typical of a young guy with his stuff & mechanics, Kaz doesn’t always have pinpoint command. No worries. He tried to bust Millar & Manny inside because that’s a pretty good way to get those two out. Millar is a dead pull hitter, so hard stuff on the hands is the book on him. And as for Manny, well, you’ve gotta get him out somehow: might as well try hard stuff in, try to tie him up. It’s as good a shot as any other. Kaz tried to dish out hard stuff on the hands, and he missed his spots a little. Like I said, no worries.

In that same game, Gomes was hit by Wakefield. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that that was probably unintentional too.

2). In the second game of the series, Schilling plunked Crawford. There is no doubt in my mind that this was intentional. Schilling has said as much himself in the past, and his BB/9 IP numbers back him up: he can throw his fastball when & where he wants to, and when he hits a batter, he meant to do it. Since returning from injury, Schilling has struggled to find his command of the splitter, so maybe someone could make the argument that Schilling didn’t mean to stick it to Crawford. I don’t buy it.

In that same game, Millar was nailed again, this time by McClung. Now, this is where things start to get a little hazy. McClung has had real problems with his control, both in Spring Training and in the regular season as well. Was this beaning a retaliation & escalation, or was it just an unlucky-byproduct of Seth’s struggles with control?

I dunno. But basically, I think it’s safe to say that Schilling was the cause of the beanball war. Did he feel that Kaz was trying to plunk Manny & Millar? I don’t know why he would. I’m sure Schilling would say that we was protecting his teammates. From what, I ask you?

3). Regardless of whether McClung intended to hit Millar, I think Arroyo’s beaning of Aubrey Huff in the right knee in the third game of the series was intentional. Huff had been wearing Arroyo out, with a hit in each of his first two at-bats. Maybe Arroyo was retaliating to protect his teammates, and maybe Arroyo was just sick of pitching to Huff, but either way, the motive was there. Then Carter threw at Manny’s ribs, missing. No question, this was intentional. Manny got mad, Manny homered. Next batter, David Ortiz. And Carter throws a pitch directly at his head.

4). Maybe Carter did this unintentionally. Maybe he was trying to drill Ortiz in the shoulder/upper arm region but just missed his spot. Doesn’t even matter. The ball ended up going directly Ortiz’s head. Ortiz had every right to be furious.

5). Excellent job by Toby Hall to keep Ortiz contained. Dude shoulda been a football player. Hall threw a bearhug on Ortiz, and Ortiz tried to sidestep him. Nothing doing: Hall stayed right with him. Somewhere, a football coach in charge of somebody’s offensive line should take notice.

6). But the benches cleared. How exactly did Nixon & Brazelton end up being the principals in the ensuing melee? The world may never know. But apparently there was a lot of ill-will built up over the course of this series, and probably a lot of jawing on both sides over the 3 games. I know that, right from the first game of the series, the Devil Rays were mad that they were playing at home but that a large percentage of the crowd was cheering for the Sox. So the Rays had a chip on their shoulder from the get-go.

But the Red Sox probably didn’t appreciate Eduardo Perez and his slightly over-the-top celebration after his walkoff homer in the the first game of the series. I don’t blame Perez, personally. He pinch-hit in the bottom of the 9th, saw one pitch, and planted it in the outfield seats, all of 460 feet away from home plate, winning the game in the process. Yeah, in that scenario, I’d say celebrations are definitely allowed.

But Ortiz hit a few bombs in the second & third games of the series, and they were the sort that were clearly gone from the moment he hit them. And he hot-dogged ‘em. He hotdogs anyway, and that’s all right with me: when you can hit the ball as hard & as far as he can, you can hotdog all you want. But when the hotdogging could be perceived as a direct response to Eduardo Perez and his earlier showboating, well, that probably didn’t help the situation.

Again, over the course of this series, and especially in that first pigpile during Game 3, there were probably things said. The players have been mum about that, and we fans will never know. Anyway, however it happened, Nixon & Brazelton went after each other, and let’s just say that I hope Braz cuts his fingernails regularly.

7). In the next half-inning, Arroyo drilled Chris Singleton on the second pitch. Is there any question regarding the intentions behind this pitch? At the time, the Red Sox already had two pitchers warming up. That pretty much says it all. The benches cleared again, but this time without much passion. By this time the ejections were starting to pile up. Arroyo & Francona were tossed, following in the wake of Carter & Piniella, Nixon & Brazelton.

It was retaliation, but he kept the pitch down. I appreciated that.

8). After all that, the game was kinda anticlimactic. Rob Bell came on in relief and gave up the ghost. But the Rays still took the series.

9). These two teams don’t meet again until after the All-Star Break. Thankfully. Let’s hope baseball players have short memories