Whether or not you like Curt Schilling, I highly suggest that you take a look at his blog, 38 Pitches (I know I’ve said this before and hate to keep hammering it home.) Besides answering fan’s questions, he also provides insight to how he threw in the games he has pitched so far. To me it is uncanny, how he can remember what happened and be so detailed about it. It also shows what is going through his mind while he is on the mound. Take a look at an excerpt from his thoughts about the Orioles game on Friday.
Kevin Millar, even when he guesses right, can’t make himself swing at my curve ball.
With one out in the second Gibbons chased a good split, and then Millar comes up. For 3 years he’s talked trash, in person, through text messages, over the phone, about how I better never throw him my curve ball. Last year in
Baltimore I started him off with it, he took it for a strike. Today I shake ‘Tek 3-4 times, Millar calls time out, steps out and says to ‘Tek “What the hells he want an 0-0 curve ball?â€, curve ball strike one. Curve ball again, yanked foul, now he’s laughing, and I am trying not to. Curve ball again he lays off. Count gets to 2-2 and he freezes on a 2 seamer inside for strike three. I don’t know if he’s debating the call or just talking, one never knows with him, but he never looks my way as I go into the dugout.
The best part about that is Millar actually responded to Schilling about the at-bat and had to this to say on Schill’s blog.
Well I must say that Curt is right on with the curve ball talk.I have been ragging on his curve ball for a few years and today he called my bluff.
1st ab he shook 3 times and I had a feeling he was shaking to the curve ball but still didnt have the balls to sit 1st pitch curve ball on Schilling. Then, I did call time out, telling Tek “What the hell is Schill doing shaking to the curve ball?â€, and bam! sure enough here came this hanging curve ball (Curt: I beg to differ, the first one wasn’t hanging) I watched for strike 1, and couldnt pull the trigger. Then schill came back with another (Curt: which I did hang) whiched I pulled foul (Curt: into the vendor selling lemonade, which for anyone sitting along the 3rd base dugout knows is no surprise, Kevin hooking a pitch foul) and yes he threw the 3rd one in a row which I layed off.
I then had a feeling he was going to throw all curve balls to me, as pedro martinez did to me the 1st time I faced him last year and i struck out on 4 in a row. But Schill caught me guessing and struck me out with a heater in.
So all the trash talking I did to him and all the text messages I ragged him with, he got me and I couldnt look at him after the AB, even though i wanted to laugh
Kevin (Curt: I can hook a fastball better than anyone but Sheffield) Millar
Where else can you get such valuable insight and information from a major league baseball player or two. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from Schill’s blog as the season moves forward.
One thing I would like to address though is the situation that came about on Thursday with the news of Jonathan Papelbon being named closer. A lot of people, including myself, said that Curt did break the news. Schilling responded to everyone with an addition to his post on Friday.
P.S. Just an FYI, the story wasn’t “Broke†here, whether you heard it here first or not, it was broken by ESPN. “Breaking news†is not a goal here, hell there isn’t any goal here other than to talk baseball, 38 Studios and do some cool stuff for the Charities that are linked as well as legitimate charities that bloggers who post here are involved in. So put away the conspiracy theories, as fun as they may be.
However, I found this little bit of information that Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reported.
Terry Francona said that Curt Schilling apologized to him for breaking the news on Papelbon’s conversion to closer in his blog.
So who are we supposed to believe here. One of the reasons why Curt started the blog was so he wasn’t misquoted. And yet Francona tells a reporter that Schilling apologized. I am sorry Curt as much as I like you and what you are doing with your blog, I am going to have to side with what Francona said. He is the skipper.
There is a time and a place to use valuable inside information. Let the big news come from the powers-to-be in the Red Sox organization and tell us your thoughts about the news. If there is breaking news that might come out involving you then so be it.