Curt and the Red Flops.

For the past day and a half I've been trying to think of something to write about Curt Schilling's retirement. I've tried to be objective about Curt before and was never terribly successful with that, so I tried to be sentimental but found myself in an uncomfortable place between being too purple and not being melodramatic enough for what he did. After much waffling, I've decided to go with the stark simplicity of: Thank you.

The Way We Were.

Admittedly, I wasn't as excited about the MLB network as some people. I'd watched the preview with Haze and a very old looking Harold Reynolds but I kind of tucked it into the back of my mind as something to check out if there was nothing else on. It wasn't going to be appointment television.

Tonight, though, I watched the 2004 World Series highlights show. I hadn't seen those games since 2004 and in that time I must have romanticized them and glossed over their awfulness. I didn't remember them being that bad. Back then I'd driven home the sixty-ish miles from school each day to watch the series with my Dad. We'd watched the first three games together but my Dad bailed on game four in the second or third inning, too nervous to watch. I stuck it out but kept repeating to myself, mantra-like: "They don't have to win this game. The don't have to win this game." And the final out? I guess that was one of the times when time stands still. I distinctly remember sitting on the floor of the den and having the mantra change to: "Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God." followed by "He's going to throw the ball into the stands. This whole thing is going to come unraveled." It seemed too quick when I just saw it.

Yet somehow I didn't expect those games to still have the emotional impact that they did. But with the interviews of Curt, Pedro, Millar--I might even be able to hug Johnny Damon right now. Michael came home shortly after the program ended and I was still walking around with a big goofy smile on my face. Excerpt from ensuing conversation:

Michael: Hey! What are you so happy about?

Me: The Red Sox won the 2004 World Series.

Michael [looking confused]: OK?

The point? There is a point to this ramble. The program started with the ALCS which, even knowing the glorious outcome, was still gut-wrenching. If you're up to it (and who wouldn't want to watch a Yankee beat down, especially one that comes at the hands of the reviled Curt Schilling), game 6 of that ALCS will be shown for free at MLB.com/Live tomorrow at 11am.

Happy Birthday Curt!

A happy forty-second birthday to Curt Schilling. It's hard to explain the affection I have for a man who drives me nuts and with whom I rarely agree but it's there. So instead of trying, I'll include a birthday wish from the Ramones.

Big Things.

So, real life interrupts my baseball habit for a couple of days and all sorts of stuff goes down.

1. Schill's done. As disappointing as the news is, I guess I just didn't expect him to make it back in the end. I'm more sorry for Curt than anything. He's seems like the type of person who wouldn't take well to being told that he couldn't do something. For him to have worked so hard since February (blindly trusting that people who knew more than him, knew what they were talking about) only to have nothing come of it, must be disheartening. I suspect that he would blame himself-if only he'd worked a little bit harder or been just a little bit better as a pitcher over the years, the therapy would have worked. Although, the idea that Schill thinks he can just shut up and disappear is pretty amusing.

2. Manni-Jonni. Normally, you miss a Friday night game to go to a wedding rehearsal and nothing too fascinating happens, especially on a rainy Friday night. Of course it happens that when I miss the game, the awesome-ness of Jonathan Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen lip-synching to Milli-Vanilli's Blame it on the Rain is unveiled. How fabulous is it that Papelbon was overshadowed by Manny Del? Clearly, Manny Del was a bigger fan of Milli-Vanilli than Papelbon was. Paps was just kind of dancing around but Manny Del? Manny Del incorporated some genuinely authentic Milli-Vanilli dance moves in there; they just needed a body slam and (I think) the runningman to make it perfect.

3. They wear spiffy green jerseys. Lugo hits a home run. David Aardsma strikes out the side. We'll just ignore all that went wrong in that game.

4. They end up dropping two games to the Cardinals on a poor performance by Daisuke Matsuzaka. Timlin had gone on the DL for knee tendonitis earlier in the day but his replacement, Chris Smith, proved to quite useful. And again, Aardsma struck out the side.

Crap.

You've probably heard. Schill's shoulder is on the outs and it seems likely that he may not be able to pitch next season.

It was nice while it lasted, wasn't it? The feeling that the world was going our way-everything was coming up Red Sox. They were the World Series champions, they brought most of their players back, and other players wanted to come and play in Boston. It was such a nice feeling that I even started to forget my grim, New England-ish outlook on life.

But the baseball gods were having none of it. They smote us for our hubris, they smote us good. Schill was just unfortunate enough to bear the brunt of their ire.

Back in November (when I still remembered how to be a Red Sox fan), I predicted that something bad had to happen to even the score if they re-signed Mike Lowell. I figured that Josh Beckett accidentally shooting himself in the foot would make things even but the gods are fair. Losing Schilling, who managed to come through when it was really needed, makes us (Red Sox fans and the baseball gods) closer to even for managing to keep Lowell.

The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach is a familiar one. It's the feeling that next season isn't going to be a walk in the park. That it's not going to be easy, in the least. That, in all likelihood, the Red Sox will be lucky to win the wild card.

In all seriousness, Curt has done a lot for this team and I wish him a speedy and complete recovery from the injury.

Who's your Daddy?

I don't often agree with a lot of what Curt has to say but this:

"Besides, New York can't gloat, the Giants are from Jersey. This one doesn't count."

made me smile. It may sound petty (and I suppose that, technically, it is) but it's true.

The interview with Curt was in the Herald and he tells us that it's okay to be sad over the Superbowl loss.

"Feel bad, be upset because your team lost. That's what being a fan is supposed to be about. But don't make this personal. And understand that you are living in some pretty damn good times for the sports franchises here in Boston."

Thanks papa Curt. I had forgotten how to be a good sport.

Curt Schilling, no. 38 (What you didn't know that?)

Birth Date: November 14, 1966 in Anchorage, AK

Height/Weight: 6'5", 235 lb. (probably less in the spring, though)

College: Yavapai Junior College

Contract: 1 year at $8 million

Ah, Curt. It's hard to just talk stats on the guy. I suppose it's that there's nothing cut and dry about Curt Schilling. It's not: here are his stats and here he is as a person, it's all tangled up in one ball of emotion. Probably because he was portrayed as our saviour before he came here and then managed to live up to the hype. He did a Ford commercial (it must have been January/February 2004) where he was hitch hiking along a southwestern-y road (deserts and mesas in the background) and he was turning down lifts (until the guy in the Ford truck came along) with a line like "No, thanks. I'm going to Boston to break an eighty-six year old curse." It's burned into my memory and maybe he bought into the hype a little bit, I don't know.

Anyway, last season he managed to put up a win-loss ratio of 9 to 8. His Earned Run Average (3.87) is above average, as is his Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched (1.245). He was a good pitcher last season. His fast ball might have slowed down a bit but he still has amazing control; he faced 633 batters last season and walked under 4% of them (23). He gave up 21 home runs but managed to strike out 101 batters. And he continued to be a post season monster-god (except for against Cleveland.)

I suppose that the way I feel about Curt Schilling can best be exemplified by the fact that prior to today, I had only one photograph of him saved on my computer (I am now the proud saver of 3 Schilling photos.) There are a bunch where he is incidental but there was only one picture of him solo. He's there, you know he's there, there's no chance of you forgetting that he's there, but sometimes you wish that he would just fade into the background a little bit.

It's not that I don't like Schilling. It's just that I hate watching him pitch. What with the sweating, and the brow wiping, and the hat adjusting, and the peering in like he can't quite make out the sign, he just seems nervous when he's on the mound. And empathetic soul that I am, he makes me nervous; every strike is a miracle and every hit was absolutely expected. It's not the way to enjoy a baseball game.

And yes, his moral compass and general pomposity can be grating. He has preachy tendencies. He could use an upgrade to his internal editor (and an external editor for his blog wouldn't be a bad investment.) And, on principle, I generally dislike it when people give their children cutesy names. But he does a lot of good; he's a very charitable guy.

I think if he manages to lose the weight and get back in shape (and it looks like he's already making progress), then he'll still be a force to be reckoned with in 2008, especially if he can avoid injury again.

Schilling, Ortiz, and Youk has got a golden glove (sung to the tune of "I've Got a Golden Ticket")

So much to talk about:

Schilling:

So he's back. I didn't think he would be, so good on him. Disregarding his big mouth, he seems like a good-enough guy; the type of guy you would like to have in a clubhouse. Plus, he's still a good pitcher. The deal they hammered out seems like it would be beneficial all around. He's guaranteed probably about what he's worth and if he can find away to be impressive he can get what he wanted. And maybe if he gets himself into decent shape, his fast ball might pick up a little bit of it's lost speed.

Ortiz:

He went in for arthroscopic knee surgery today. Which, as I understand it, involves trimming excess cartilage from the knee. From my limited research (i.e. I did a Google search and read one of the first articles that came up), it seems that the surgery isn't always productive and often results in the patient needing to have a full knee replacement in a few years. Let's hope that this is not the case here. Hopefully, it will make it less painful to watch him run (I was, seriously, having sympathy pains in my wonky knee watching him in the last couple of games). With reconstructed knees, it's best to put as little weight as possible on them; so perhaps there's a way to tack Schilling's weight-loss clause onto Ortiz's contract.

Youkilis:

Hooray for Youk and his Gold Glove! One thousand and eighty chances to make an error and he got away clean from all of them. It is an impressive feat. As much as I admire Youkilis, though (and I do), I love Coco Crisp. And Crisp was robbed of his award. It is a joy to watch Crisp play and there is no way that Grady Sizemore was a better defensive player than he was. The fact that he didn't have much offensive output shouldn't have had any bearing on an award for defense. And just because he is fun to watch: