Upset with critics, Piniella in war of words with Stone

The fireworks started early Friday at Wrigley Field, and it had nothing to do with the rivalry between the Cubs and the White Sox.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella launched into a blistering verbal attack on Steve Stone, the White Sox' TV analyst who held the same job with the Cubs for many years before leaving after the 2004 season.

Piniella initially was talking about his critics in general, saying they should talk to him first and get his feelings before attacking him.

Stone criticized Piniella's handling of young outfielder Tyler Colvin on Comcast TV, saying, "Lou doesn't have a great grasp on what to do with young players."

Piniella struck back on Stone unsolicited.

"And Steve Stone?" Piniella said. "He's got enough problems doing what he does with the White Sox. What job has he had in baseball besides talking on television or radio? What has he done? Why isn't he a farm director and bring some kids around? Why isn't he a general manager? Why hasn't he ever put the uniform on and been a pitching coach? Why hasn't he been a field manager?

"There's 30 teams out there that could use a guy's expertise like that. You know? I'm tired of some of these guys, I really am."

Asked for a response, Stone termed Piniella's comments "one of the dumber things he's said" and added that he's been offered assistant-general manager's jobs, "three of them" and pitching coach jobs, all of which he said he turned down. Stone also said he "championed" Piniella for the Cubs job when he got it in late 2006.

"So that got under his skin?" Stone said of Piniella's reaction. "Well, No. 1, I never said he was an idiot, I don't believe. In fact, I know I never did that. I never said that Lou was a bad manager. I think maybe what Lou conveniently forgets is that I was one of the champions for him to get that job when a lot of people wanted Joe Girardi at that time."

Stone pointed at other media members as people who have never worked on baseball front offices yet still have opinions on the game.

"I'm assuming most of you guys don't have front-office experience and yet you do write articles where you give opinions and you Tweet where you give opinions and you text where you give opinions," Stone said. "Some people write columns where they give opinions. Some people have game stories where they give opinions. And you don't have any front-office experience.

"I still think if you're a lifelong baseball guy - this is my fifth decade; I've seen a lot of baseball games. Lou's older than I am. That's not my fault. His parents just happened to have him before mine had me. But I spent a lot of time in the game. I've seen a lot of guys come and go. I've seen a lot of people that I thought were handled very well and a lot of people I thought were handled very poorly.

"I think we're all entitled to our opinion. That's pretty much the way it goes. If some of us have a forum for them, all of us voice them."

On the Colvin issue, Piniella reiterated that he has "five major-league outfielders" on the roster and that he's going to be fair to all of them.

Stone held his ground on that one.

"The facts are, he's not getting enough at-bats," Stone said. "That's a non-debatable issue. He's not getting enough at-bats. The opinion is, I think he should be getting 30 a week."