The Babcock Report: 38 Special

God...is that you?

I’m sure in a few years I wont remember where I was when Curt Schilling announced that he was having season and most likely career ending shoulder surgery. I was sitting on a 5 gallon bucket on the side of Mass Ave in Cambridge, MA listening to a police officer explain to me the benefits of backing up ones cell phone contact list. Lord knows I have lost a cellphone or two in my day.

A brilliant pony-tail and shirt combination here.

But Schilling’s announcement got me to thinking. Of all the Boston sports figures of the last 10 years Schilling may be one of the most interesting. On the field, there were few players in all of the major sports (I am of course intentionally excluding the perpetually wallowing Bruins, sometimes I feel very lucky that I have no emotional ties to the game of Hockey) that were more reliable in big-game situations. Can you think of a big game where Schilling didn’t bring his A game? How clutch was he in 2004? You could argue that he was the ace of that staff, no offense to Pedro. His bloody sock became legendary in Boston, and helped to spawn one of those terrible ESPN Baseball Tonight commercials. By the way, if I never hear Peter Gammons say “HE WENT TO GET THE HOT SAUCE!” again, it will be too soon.

Here are a sampling of two highlights of Schillings career:

The Turtleneck Photo. Seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess.

Schilling Played with Micki Morandini and Lenny Dykstra. I played college football with these guys. Tie.


Schilling was never at a loss for an opinion, and in an age of sterile interviews and pre-packaged answers to pre-packaged questions, Schilling never shied away from a question or offered an ambiguous response. A lot of people in the New England area were turned off by Schilling’s conservative viewpoints on politics and religion. I have to admit, Curt and I probably don’t see eye to eye on some things but it was refreshing to actually know where he stood. I never felt as though he was being unnecessarily preachy. Some did. Life goes on.

I have a sock that looks just like this under my bed.

Looking back on my lifetime, I can’t remember a more consistent Red Sox starting pitcher in the postseason. Schilling was an old school hurler who brought a certain nastiness to the mound with him every 5 days. I have to think that off the hill he has had a great impact on younger Red Sox pitchers. Certainly, you can never have enough veteran “character” guys on your roster, and Schilling was just this type of ballplayer and person. Red Sox fans are currently enjoying an embarrassment of ritches with the plethora of talented young pitchers in the system, so in reality Schilling’s loss will not have as much of an impact as it would have had two, three, or four years ago. In fact I don’t think it will have any. That is a good thing.

In my mind, Curt Schilling is a Hall of Fame pitcher. He came through the steroid scandal unscathed, and in fact, the scandal (and the fact that so many of his peers were using) should elevate his status as one of the elite pitchers of the past 20 years. Hall of Fame voters need to consider this, along with the fact that he called out Kobe Bryant for being a douchebag, and do the right thing.

Very Zen.