yep said:Why are we using this thread to unpack things we don't we don't like about Curt Schilling, public figure?
He's an unquestionable hero in Red Sox and in baseball, who delivered a perfomance for the ages in the biggest post-season comeback in baseball history, and arguably the most exciting and significant post-season in American sports.
He's a legendary SoSH poster and member, who brought insights and perspective that no other regular poster on this or any other fan board has ever been able to offer, to my knowledge. He's a borderline HOF pitcher, with an unquestioned HOF sock/ankle, who did an admirable job of trying his damndest to be "one of the guys" on this message-board, and often struggled with it.
And now he has cancer. I can't believe I'm reading things like "maybe it's not really BAD cancer, and just for PR". If you ever meet "good cancer" or "PR cancer", let me know what it looks like. My experience with "good cancer" is that you spend a couple years of your life going through surgery and being injected with poison that makes you chronically sick in the hope that you don't die soon.
His post-baseball life and celebrity enabled him to make some spectacular mistakes. Most of us will never get the chance to see how we would fare on a stage that size.
Curt Schilling was once upon a time a regular-ish guy with a sick kid and a family to feed and not a millionare sports hero. And then he developed into as big a "big-game pitcher" as the game could point to: the Schilling/Johnson tandem was a big fucking deal, and it's an open question who was the "ace" between him and the Big Unit.
He then joined the Red Sox in no small part thanks to this board in particular, and his interest in and connection with the Boston fanbase and history in general, and he never missed an opportunity to credit the fans. On Bloodly Ankle day, he gave a press-conference something like waking up at 7am, not thinking he was going to be able to pitch, and then seeing all the signs on route 109 or something...
What the fuck is wrong with us? How spoiled can a fanbase possibly be?
That guy, *that guy*, the guy who pitched a gem through experimental surgery, who was the story for the ages in the post-season for the ages, who stepped up when Pedro flubbed in 2004, who joined this board on thanksgiving night, who did his damndest to ignore the fawning and trolling and piling-on that happened whenever he posted, who started game-threads and who told us what he thought, unfiltered, from the inside, and who did everything he could to be not just a hero but also a fan... *that guy* now has cancer, and we, *this board* are now unpacking his politics and failed business ventures?
Back when SoSh was newsworthy enough to have a "reputation" in the world of baseball media, it had a reputation for being snooty and too-cool-for-school. Closed membership and Curt Schilling were the keywords, with bonus points given to special guest appearances by Tango, John Henry, and Bill Simmons or whatever.
Now that we're too cool even for Curt Schilling with cancer, maybe we can whittle down the membership to three or four under-employed lawyers who argue over politics and post snarky links to embarassing blogs, with a couple of post-graduates in other disciplines to provide technical backup.
I'm trying to imagine a scenario where, say, DH3 got $50MM and a grant from the state of RI, and then blew it spectacularly on a pipe-dream business-plan, and then got cancer... I cannot imagine anything like this thread. The casualness and blase tone and tenor... and DH3 never pitched a big game in his life, that I know of.
G38 had an absolute legendary, heroic, spotless record as a Red Sock, and as a SoSH member, and as a regular guy made good. He had a much less impressive run as a political thinker and post-baseball businessman. And now he has cancer.
MLB may or may not put him in the HOF, the Red Sox might but probably won't retire his number, but SoSH should absolutely do so. There are sub-forums to bitch about his business failings. If Red Sox baseball doesn't count for something, then this entire website is pointless. And if Red Sox baseball is a worthwhile topic, then G38 is a fucking superhero of historic proportions.
I can't say it any better than this from yep, so I will just send best wishes to G38 and his family from across the ocean.