"Curt Schilling expounded on a few hot-button topics concerning his current and former teammates in his regular appearance on WEEI radio yesterday morning.

Schilling went into some previously unheard detail about a confrontation between him and Manny Ramirez that occurred July 27, 2005, in St. Petersburg, Fla. That was just a couple of days before Ramirez almost shot his way out of town at the trading deadline.

This time, Trot Nixon got hurt and the Sox asked Ramirez, who was scheduled to have a day off, to play. He said no. The fact that Tampa Bay was starting hard-throwing right-hander Seth McClung played into a pregame conversation.

“David (Ortiz) looks to me and says, ‘Why in the hell does this guy turn into Cy Young against us?’ and I said, ‘Hey, it just makes Manny look that much smarter. He ain’t stupid, he knows what days to take off.’ And Manny took offense to that. There was something that had to be broken up.

“Next day, I saw Manny, and it was as if the previous day had never happened. One of the beautiful things about Manny.”

For what it’s worth, here’s what the Herald reported on July 31 about the incident, basing its information on a source close to Ramirez and “authorized” to speak on his behalf.

The source said that Ortiz said aloud to Schilling, “Man, that guy’s got some nasty stuff,” to which Schilling reportedly responded, “Yeah, that’s why Manny took the day off.”

Ramirez then supposedly said to Schilling, “Screw you, I can hit anyone in baseball, including your (butt).”

Then, the source said, Ramirez went up to Schilling, and, before the confrontation escalated, Ortiz had to “separate the two.”

In yesterday’s comments, Schilling also said Ortiz will survive without Ramirez.

“David is a strong guy,” he said. “This is not something that’s going to make David less of a player.”"