Schilling at center of political flap
July 29, 2010
BOSTON (AP)—Forget two wars, health care and the economy. The hottestpolitical issue in New England right now is Curt Schilling(notes).
The former Boston Red Sox pitcher is back in his favorite spot—the centerof attention—after his startup video game company was offered a sweetheartdeal to leave Massachusetts for Rhode Island.
As Republicans rail against government handouts in an era ofbelt-tightening, all five Rhode Island gubernatorial candidates expressedreservations about the deal. One of them even dredged up the now-discreditednotion that Schilling faked the bloody sock that became his signature baseballmoment.
“I don’t know if I trust Curt Schilling,” said former Sen. Lincoln Chafee,who’s running for governor as an independent. “I just remember his ownteammates didn’t like him. They thought he was a bit of a salesman.”
A three-time World Series champion with a pitching resume that might get himinto the Baseball Hall of Fame, Schilling is known as much for the things hesays and the way he says them—brash and confident, often with an apology tofollow—as for his accomplishments on the diamond.
He has endorsed political candidates and even toyed with running for officehimself, but has never been as enmeshed in a race as when the Rhode IslandEconomic Development Corporation offered his company a $75 million loanguarantee to move to the state. Officials with 38 Studios, which is scheduled torelease its first product in the fall of 2011, promised to create about 450 jobs— with an average salary of $67,500—by the end of 2012.
“I need you to know I’ve invested a significant amount of my life’searnings in 38 Studios,” Schilling, who did not respond to a request to beinterviewed for this article, said at a news conference after the state approvedthe deal. “I will protect the loan guarantee that’s been given by the statewith the same passion and interest that I’m protecting my own investment in thiscompany. Our paths are very much aligned.”
Rhode Island politicians panned the deal—led by the candidates forgovernor—questioning whether the state should be staking so much on a singlecompany, and an unproven one at that. Moderate Party candidate Ken Block calledit “a silver-bullet approach to economic development.”
“It doesn’t work,” he said. “We can’t afford it.”
Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy Cahill, who’s running for governor, saidthat his neighboring state made a “bad decision” and that Massachusetts“would not have done what Rhode Island did.” (Of course, he was careful topraise Schilling’s pitching, lest he offend the Red Sox fans in the electorate.)
Chafee went farther—some say too far—when he cast doubt on the bloodysock, a talisman of the 2004 World Series victory that ended an 86-yearchampionship drought for the Red Sox.
With an ankle injury that would otherwise have kept him from pitching,Schilling asked team doctor Bill Morgan to stitch a flapping tendon in place sohe could make his start in Game 6 of the AL playoffs. They repeated theprocedure five days later in the World Series—with another bloody sock, andanother Red Sox victory.
The performances gave birth to a stubborn urban legend that Schillingstained the sock with ketchup or paint to call attention to himself. He hasdenied it, Morgan has vouched for him, and the Hall of Fame, which has the sockin its collection, has said there is no reason to doubt the stain is blood.
“It was blood, my blood, and it was coming from the sutures in my ankle,”Schilling said in 2007. “You’re either stupid or bitter if you thinkotherwise.”
Schilling’s former teammates also stand by him, though some have alsoacknowledged that the story has legs in part because Schilling, well, seems likethe kind of guy who would do something like that.
There’s no doubt about this: Where Schilling goes, controversy usuallyfollows.
Or this: He seems to revel in it.
Schilling’s success on the field is undisputed, with a 216-146 lifetimerecord in 20 years with five teams and a .846 playoff winning percentage that isamong the best in baseball history.
But it is his tendency to venture into off-field issues that made him one ofthe most polarizing athletes of his time.
He was a vocal critic of steroid users in baseball, earning him aninvitation to a congressional hearing. When called to testify, he said: “Theissue was grossly overstated by people, including myself.”
He also said that Barry Bonds “admitted to cheating on his wife, cheatingon his taxes and cheating on the game.” Schilling later apologized.
The morning after Boston’s cathartic World Series victory—a week beforethe 2004 presidential election between George W. Bush and home-state senatorJohn Kerry—Schilling appeared on “Good Morning America” and signed off bysaying, “Make sure you tell everybody to vote, and vote Bush next week.”
In 2008, he backed Republican John McCain (after suggesting—somewhatimplausibly, considering Schilling’s stated positions—that he thought aboutendorsing Barack Obama).
When Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died, Schilling publicly vacillated over whetherto run for the seat, publishing his potential position paper on his blog underthe headline “What I Believe.” He decided instead to support Republican stateSen. Scott Brown against overwhelming favorite Martha Coakley, the Democraticattorney general in a heavily Democratic state.
Coakley dismissed the endorsement as coming from, of all things, a Yankeesfan. Schilling said the gaffe showed she was out of touch with the state’svoters.
“I’ve been called a lot of things,” Schilling responded, “but never, Imean never, could anyone make the mistake of calling me a Yankee fan.”
And no one’s ever called him bashful, either.
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Providence, R.I., contributed to thisreport.
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