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.''
Piniella called a team meeting before Wednesday night's game at Toronto and issued a statement ripping Schilling.
``Forget how the game is played? I have forgotten more baseball than this guy knows,'' Piniella said.