Curt Crucified By Jon Heyman



Sadly, the Newsday columnist will not be hitting against Schilling this evening.

Yesterday was particularly bad because Schilling had a microphone in front of him instead of a batter and was called upon to talk about his three favorite subjects: Me, myself and I.

The first words out of his mouth revealed quite a bit. He told us he might not be a perfect person. The way he said it, he acted as if this were a scoop.

"Well, I don't think until the other day I realized my shortcomings over the last seven years as far as my walk with the Lord goes," he said.

Imagine that. To have lived nearly 40 years and not have noticed any flaws. How remarkable.

Early in the season, when Red Sox reliever Scott Williamson asked out of a game at Yankee Stadium because he was hurt, Schilling called him a name that can't be printed in a family newspaper. Schilling denied saying it, but I know someone who heard him say it.

Yesterday, while talking about his own great Game 6 performance against the Yankees, Schilling said, "You care about your teammates enough that you do things that you never thought you'd do."

It isn't known whether he sent Williamson a card.

Full disclosure: Schilling called me "a liar" and "an idiot" after I wrote that Jason Varitek chided Schilling after he blew off a pitchers' meeting before a series at Yankee Stadium early this season. Schilling denied it happened and recruited team man Varitek to say he was only kidding.

The problem was that I observed the exchange and then heard that Varitek repeated his opinion of Schilling's absence from the meeting -- in harsher fashion -- behind closed doors.

Schilling knows fans will eat up his words, no matter how false. He goes to astounding lengths to paint things in his light, even going to the point of filing messages in obscure Boston-based chat rooms such as "Sonsofsamhorn.com," a reference to former Red Sox Sam Horn. Schilling uses the monicker "Gehrig38," invoking the name of the Yankees' great.

Schilling always seems to be injecting himself into places he doesn't belong. He's the most opinionated person who shouts down the opinions of others.

Back in the 1990s, Phillies general manager Ed Wade said, "Schilling is a horse every fifth day and a horse's -- -- the other four."

Never has a boss better sized up an employee.

I'm not sure if Schilling's message board activities are the work of an obsessive spin-meister rather than a guy who likes to have a dialogue with the public without the likes of Heyman as a buffer. Given the recent revelations over Newsday's falsified circulation figures, perhaps it isn't quite fair to describe Sons Of Sam Horn as obscure. OK, the message board doesn't compare to a Long Island coupon-shopper, but they're doing the best they can.

Posted: Sun - October 24, 2004 at 12:44 PM      

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