Posted on Sun, May. 13, 2007
The State South Carolina's PaperSchilling finds online forum cuts both ways
By STEVE WISEMANswiseman@thestate.com
WHEN IT COMES to baseball blogs worth reading, Curt Schilling’s site jumps to the top of the list among those produced by professional players.
The candid Boston Red Sox right-hander posts his thoughts regularly at 38pitches.com.
Dozens of other players have blogs, but most are geared toward their charitable foundations. In those cases, it’s nice that these millionaires are sincerely giving back to their communities. Schilling wrote on his blog that his aim was to raise awareness for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
Schilling took it a step further with his online journals, which offer raw opinions that differ from the cliches spewed by athletes in the mainstream press.
Sometimes Schilling’s words aren’t pretty. Last month he took aim on a handful of reporters under the headline “Ignorance has its privileges.”
“Does anyone stop reading their newspapers? Watching the shows they appear on? The answer to that is no. Instead of using the forums they participate in to do something truly different, change lives, inspire people, you have an entire subset of media whose sole purpose in life is to actually be the news, instead of report it,” Schilling wrote.
Ouch.
Schilling’s fans eat this stuff up. That post has drawn 700 comments.
Last week, after Roger Clemens signed with the New York Yankees, Schilling talked to reporters about its impact on the Red Sox. Some of the articles inferred that Schilling was disrespecting Clemens by saying Boston didn’t need him.
Here was part of Schilling’s response from his May 7 post.
“So while I did say “We don’t need him”, it was at the end of a quote that started with ‘I’d have loved to have him,’” Schilling wrote.
Schilling took himself to task on Wednesday. Earlier in the week, in an appearance on a Boston radio station, Schilling attacked Barry Bonds and his pursuit of the home run record because of the steroid shadow that surround Bonds.
“I am far from perfect and make more than my share of mistakes, which is something I have no problem with because that’s part of being human,” Schilling said in his subsequent apology. “However when my mistakes adversely affect other peoples lives, that’s a big deal. It was a callous, reckless and irresponsible thing to say, and for that I apologize to Barry, Barry’s family, Barry’s family, Barry’s friends and the Giants organization.”
In glancing at a handful of other baseball player’s Web sites this week, none came close to offering what Schilling’s did for insight.
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter’s site at derekjeter.com contains a journal that has not been updated since April 5.
Florida pitcher Dontrelle Willis’ site at dontrellewillis.com posts the statistics from his latest start. But the Ask Dontrelle section says it has not been updated since 2004.
Former South Carolina infielder Brian Roberts, now Baltimore’s second baseman, has a site at brianroberts1.com. But there is no journal or question-and-answer area.
Arizona outfielder Eric Byrnes’ site at byrnesie.com has potential. The flamboyant center fielder worked for Fox Sports during its playoff coverage last fall and wrote on his site that he might move into radio once his playing career ends. But Byrnes also wrote about another occupation he once admired while growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“I always wanted to be a bridge toll taker when I was a kid in the Bay area,” Byrnes wrote. “I would see those people kicking it in the booth and I thought that would be a really cool job. Just sitting there with your music, reading, watching TV, do whatever, take the money. Looked like a good job to me.”
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