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January 25, 2006
Schill The Pill
According to GQ, Curt Schilling is #4 on the list of "The Ten Most Hated Athletes" -
“Between the white lines, it’s all real,” says one reporter who has covered Schilling. “But outside the white lines, there’s a huge gap between the man and the image he projects.” Take, for instance, Schilling’s self-glorifying display during Congress’s steroid hearings last March or his absurdly patriotic open letter to America on ESPN.com after 9/11, for which his teammates mocked him on a late-night bus ride with a chorus of “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.” “They know what he’s about,” says the sportswriter. “I’d say a large percentage of them like him—every fifth day. He wears on people.”
On days he doesn’t pitch, Schilling is notorious for striking TV-ready poses on the dugout stairs. (His manager in Philadelphia, Jim Fregosi, dubbed him Red Light Curt.) “He’s somebody who’s always positioning himself in terms of what’s best for Curt Schilling,” says ESPN’s Pedro Gomez, who described Schilling as “the consummate table for one.” (Speaking of which, Schilling also has a reputation for sneaking into the clubhouse late in games to get a head start on the buffet.)
So avid is Schilling’s longing for the spotlight that some of his peers raise doubts about his now legendary turn in the 2004 postseason, when he pitched on an ankle tendon that had been sutured in place. During Game 6, cameras cut repeatedly to the bright red stain on Schilling’s sock. It was blood, right? “The Diamondbacks people think he definitely doctored that sock,” says the sportswriter. The ex-teammate laughs: “All around baseball, people questioned that. It was funny how the stain didn’t spread.”
I've been saying this for over a year. Don't believe the saint-stuff that you hear on Curt.
Related, no Yankees made the GQ list. Wow.
Posted by Steve Lombardi at January 25, 2006 11:24 AM
Comments
None of the Yanks made the top ten, but there's a "5 who just missed the cut" list at the beginning of the article that includes both Randy Johnson and A-Rod. From the blurb it actually sounds like there are mixed opinions on A-Rod, although they make Johnson sound like a prick. Did you think a mainstream publicaiton would miss a chance to bash the Yankees???
Posted by: Marcus ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.waswatching.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 25, 2006 12:10 PM
You know how Sox fans always call Shaugnnessy CHB for Curly-Haired Boyfriend? I think I'm always going to call Schilling “the consummate table for one” or CTF1 from now on.
Posted by: Nick from Washington Heights at January 25, 2006 12:35 PM
I've been in the Schilling-skeptics clubs for quite a while regarding that bloody sock. What amazes me is how reporters are so quick to judge ARod or RJ or others as being this way or that but never give the other side of Curt Schilling. He gets treated with kid gloves in the national press.
I anxiously await the first time we get to see Schilling on the mound in 2006. That Thursday night game in July at Fenway when Sheff and ARod zinged liners off Schilling is one of the highlights of my 2005 season. I hope YES Network playes that game on its Yankee Classics reel.
Posted by: MJ at January 25, 2006 12:35 PM
Unfairly or not, Schilling gets a free pass from the press because he makes their job easier. He can always be counted on give an absurd quote (on just about any freaking topic under the sun). Sportswriters will naturally love this in comparison to the company-line obligatory comments they'll get from an A-Rod or a Jeter.
Writer: "Curt, you really got shelled out there today, how come?"
Schilling: "I support President Buch. It's the CEO's fault that pension plans are underfunded. Sheep shouldn't be cloned. A-Rod is bush league. Literacy is a problem in the country. Peter Jackson was wildly overpaid for King Kong."
Posted by: knuckles at January 25, 2006 01:18 PM
Mercurochrome. Simply merchurochrome.
Posted by: JohnnyC at January 25, 2006 03:23 PM
A current minor league pitcher (who got in a handful of games in the majors) once in a while comments on a sports blog that I frequent. He made his debut with the 2001 Diamondbacks, near the end of the season. You can read his take on Red Light at the link below.
http://www.sportsfilter.com/comments.cfm/4989#comment58043
Posted by: Jen at January 26, 2006 01:04 AM
It's somewhere behind a firewall, but there was a good article in the NYT (maybe the magazine) sometime back in 01 about the relationship between Schilling and Johnson. They portrayed Schilling as manipulative and spotlight-hungry; Johnson is described as a realer person.
Posted by: rilkefan at January 26, 2006 01:04 PM