I had to make a move. I’m no longer in the suburbs of Boston, but hey at least I’m out of my mom’s basement. Before I start in on the Curt Schilling argument I just wanted to thank the lord for barstoolsports.com and survivinggrady.com who are keeping in the loop with my New England Sports news now that I’m in the city of brotherly love.
With the announcement of Curt Schilling’s retirement last week came an onslaught of disscuions regarding his Hall of Fame worthiness. My vote, as usual would be yes, Curt Schilling belongs in the Hall of Fame.
I kind of feel like I owe it to old G38 to have his back, I mean the Sox didn’t win a World Series for 86 years, then Schilling hopped in that F-150, came to Boston and broke a ‘curse’. The whole existence-vs-non existence of the curse argument notwithstanding, the guy had the balls to declare that he had a ‘curse’ to break and he actually did it.
“No way, he faked that whole bloody sock thing and…” I’m going to have to stop you right there. He didn’t fake it ok settle down. First, I’ve seen the sock it wasn’t food coloring or ketchup or whatever other substance you’re going to tell me it was. The guy had his tendon sewn to his foot and then regulated.
The biggest anti-Schilling arguments I’ve heard have focused on his 216 career wins. Granted 216 wins over 20 years isn’t eye popping but pitchers don’t win 300 games anymore. Realistically Randy Johnson will probably be the last 300 game winner we see for a long time. And he still has to win five more games to hit that number.
Baseball always has been a numbers game, with that in mind, the only active pitchers who have more wins than Schill are Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Johnson, Jamie Moyer and Kenny Rodgers (is he still active?) however the real meat of the HoF argument for Schill is the fact that he might just be the greatest post season pitcher ever.
Schilling went 11-2 in the playoffs with an all time best 2.23 ERA. Those are some gaudy numbers. Plus he pitched in four World Series, which means that every time a Curt Schilling led team reached the playoffs then went to the World Series. See the Sox losing in the ALCS wasn’t because they didn’t have Manny it was because they didn’t have Schilling.
I don’t want to get crazy with his numbers but you need to look at other stats besides just wins. Being a Hall of Famer means you were one of the best to ever play the game, it also means you were of the best to play the game during your career. With all the changes in the game you can’t say Schilling’s not a Hall of Famer because he only won 216 game and Cy Young won 511 games or Christy Mathewson won 373 games. That doesn’t make sense.
During Schilling’s career he was one of the most dominate pitchers in the game. Six times in his career he was in the top eight in winning percentage, five times he was in the top eight in wins, he was a six time all star, he led the league in strikeouts-to-walks ratio five times and was in the top ten 11 times in 20 years. His WHIP was in the top ten 11 times, I could list about ten more categories where he ranked in the top ten for a least half of his career.
According to baseball-reference.com his career numbers put him at or above the numbers of the average HoFer in just about every category, but like a lot of guys Schilling had some enemies so he’s not a Hall of Famer in their eyes.
Why is it ok for voters to exclude a guy because he wasn’t nice to them? Whether a player was friendly to the media should have nothing to do with whether he gets into the Hall of Fame. I’m sure there are voters who don’t think he’s a Hall of Famer and that’s fine, that’s why they are voters but the reason they don’t vote him in should be based on his on the field career not his media session demeanor.
He was arguably the greatest post season pitcher of all time and that has nothing to do with whether or not he used a Carl Everett coined moniker for a curly haired sports writer, that’s all I’m saying.
This has nothing to do with his numbers or Hall of Fame worthiness but I loved how Schilling embraced fans in Boston by joining SoSH and later starting his blog. Granted he can be long winded and stubborn with his opinions but he’s not afraid to throw them out there. And speaking from a fan’s perspective it was great to read his insight on the game directly from him.
Sure his blog included a lot of ball washing from fans but he also answered questions and gave great insight on pitching and the Red Sox through both 38 Pitches and on SoSH. He even answered a question from the Red Seat about Jon Lester back when he started the site on wordpress. YAY!
It’s funny people call athletes out for not talking but then when Schilling talks…at length…about anything he gets called out for his opinion. Everyone wants to hear opinions on Bonds and Bonds, then when Schilling gives one he gets ripped for being a loud mouth. I might not agree with everything he says but I love the fact that he says it in his own way.
Final verdict – Schilling is a Hall of Famer, not next year but his post season numbers will eventually get him in. Either way I look forward to listening to him on weei in the coming years. Also, don’t worry Bert Blyleven you’ll be in there too.
A couple of quick thoughts on some other stuff…and no there is nothing about my bracket in there because…damn.
First if you haven’t listened to it yet you should go to itunes and get the Deadspin Podcast…errr…Deadcast because Drew Magary is a riot.
Second I don’t understand why Twitter is big time news all of a sudden. Who cares if Charlie Villanueva twittered during half time of a game, or if Shaq and Lance Armstrong attempt to market themselves to their fans through twitter?
Personally I think Twitter is pointless and retarded. It’s not really any different from the Facebook status update, which isn’t really any different from the old AIM away message. I know people are obsessed with celebrities and that could possibly be a sign of the apocalypse but celebrities and athletes are really the only people that should use twitter. I’m sorry regular people like you and me just don’t usually have anything interesting to twitter about.
Think about it…who gives a shit about what I am doing within the confines of 140 some odd characters? It’s bad enough I have a blog which I occasionally spout my stupid opinions about stuff. Why would anyone care if I twittered to say that I am watching March Madness, or making hamburger helper.
People care about what athletes and celebs are doing, no one cares if you are at work on a Tuesday…so is everybody else. People want to know how Lance Armstrong’s surgery went last week so he twittered…twitted…tweeted…whatever…but nobody gives a shit if you’re out to eat or cleaning the house.
If people want to use it to reach out to their fans then that’s awesome, but really it’s stupid. It’s just another outlet for people to let you know they are at the gym or quote the movie Heat.
Showing posts with label Curt Schilling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Curt Schilling. Show all posts
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 8, 2007
The greatest idea in the history of the world…of warcraft.
It’s Massachusetts State Hockey Tournament time which means I’ve been uber busy and haven’t had a chance to comment on all the Spring Training action or the Patriots free agency.
Well, kind of a lot has happened in the last week. I haven’t had a chance to watch any of the spring training games, with the exception of a few innings of a Yankees, Tigers game. I did see some video of Dice-K, he looks good so far and on top of that Hanley Ramirez (who was all lined up to be my next favorite Red Sox) said he was nasty and threw too hard. Han-Ram was the NL Rookie of the Year by the way.
I don’t want to put too much stock in his TUP (tremendous upside potential…a la Bill Simmons) but he was legit in the World Baseball Classic, he was legit in Japan and now Curt Schilling says he is legit. And that brings me to the focal point of this post. I know there’s a lot going on right now, I’ll get to that, but Curt Schilling has a blog.
Yep. It’s the truth good ole G38 has entered the world of blogging. If you think about it, this move makes a ton of sense coming from Schilling. Bloggers have a stereotype of living in their parents basement and Schilling is a known computer gamer. Guy loves World of Warcraft, Everquest and the likes, he’s perfect for a blog.
A lot of people hate on Schilling for speaking his mind and being a “blowhard” but can you really get mad if that’s what he writes about in his blog…isn’t that what blogs are for, to write about what you think? There already are a lot of people hating on Schilling for his blog. People seem to think that because he’s a baseball player he should stick to baseball and that’s it, but the guy has other interests I’m sure. And what makes anyone else anymore qualified to have a blog over anyone else.
Some people might have better or more entertaining blogs but I’d say Schilling is more qualified to write about baseball than I am but you know what I like baseball so I want to write about it some people might like it, others will no doubt think I am an idiot but that’s what this is all about.
Now if his 38pitches blog turns out to be him yammering on about politics or religion or online multiplayer video gaming I probably won’t read it, because I don’t really care what his take on that stuff is.
I personally think he is on to something here, if his blog provides insight into the thoughts of a major league pitcher…the premier pitcher on my favorite team even then it has the potential to be an awesome resource for fans. So far his blog has been exactly that…a space with his thoughts and feeling on baseball, he even said right off the bat that his opinion are his opinions and they can be wrong.
His first post was a good intro but if his second post is any indication of what is to come we could not only have great ‘from the horses mouth’ (so to speak) insight on the Red Sox and Curt Schilling but it could be open the door for more players to do similar things.
Schilling is not one to shy away from talking, that is no secret, he’s a regular on WEEI and on Sons of Sam Horn (Gehrig38) so something like this isn’t really that much of a surprise but I am a little bit excited to see where he takes this.
His first real post, entitled Spring Training 2007 was great. It’s up at 38pitches.com right now and you should check it out (after you read this of course). In the spring training post he takes you through his starts and lets you know how and what he was feeling. It’s pretty cool to be able to hear what was going through his mind on the mound and see that he’s not fully comfortable with some of his pitches yet, while he is set with others.
I found it very interesting to read about a situation wear Varitek called for a fastball but Schilling didn’t want to throw it so he tried to shake Tek off but the Captain insisted so he threw it but Schill didn’t have it in his head that he could throw that pitch in that spot with confidence and it got crushed. I don’t think he threw Tek under the bus as much as he was just saying that the pitch got crushed because he threw it without confidence. I think that insight like that is great and it could add another dynamic to following the Sox. I don’t want to rehash the whole post but I found that part of particular interest.
Possibly the best part about Schilling’s blog is the fact that he enabled comments...so you can rip him if you so chose (as long as you use clean language) I can’t wait until he responds to a commenter with “Any dungeon master worth his weight in geldings…” No matter what your thoughts on Schilling are you have to admit the idea of his blog is a pretty cool one.
Check it out – 38pitches
Well, kind of a lot has happened in the last week. I haven’t had a chance to watch any of the spring training games, with the exception of a few innings of a Yankees, Tigers game. I did see some video of Dice-K, he looks good so far and on top of that Hanley Ramirez (who was all lined up to be my next favorite Red Sox) said he was nasty and threw too hard. Han-Ram was the NL Rookie of the Year by the way.
I don’t want to put too much stock in his TUP (tremendous upside potential…a la Bill Simmons) but he was legit in the World Baseball Classic, he was legit in Japan and now Curt Schilling says he is legit. And that brings me to the focal point of this post. I know there’s a lot going on right now, I’ll get to that, but Curt Schilling has a blog.
Yep. It’s the truth good ole G38 has entered the world of blogging. If you think about it, this move makes a ton of sense coming from Schilling. Bloggers have a stereotype of living in their parents basement and Schilling is a known computer gamer. Guy loves World of Warcraft, Everquest and the likes, he’s perfect for a blog.
A lot of people hate on Schilling for speaking his mind and being a “blowhard” but can you really get mad if that’s what he writes about in his blog…isn’t that what blogs are for, to write about what you think? There already are a lot of people hating on Schilling for his blog. People seem to think that because he’s a baseball player he should stick to baseball and that’s it, but the guy has other interests I’m sure. And what makes anyone else anymore qualified to have a blog over anyone else.
Some people might have better or more entertaining blogs but I’d say Schilling is more qualified to write about baseball than I am but you know what I like baseball so I want to write about it some people might like it, others will no doubt think I am an idiot but that’s what this is all about.
Now if his 38pitches blog turns out to be him yammering on about politics or religion or online multiplayer video gaming I probably won’t read it, because I don’t really care what his take on that stuff is.
I personally think he is on to something here, if his blog provides insight into the thoughts of a major league pitcher…the premier pitcher on my favorite team even then it has the potential to be an awesome resource for fans. So far his blog has been exactly that…a space with his thoughts and feeling on baseball, he even said right off the bat that his opinion are his opinions and they can be wrong.
His first post was a good intro but if his second post is any indication of what is to come we could not only have great ‘from the horses mouth’ (so to speak) insight on the Red Sox and Curt Schilling but it could be open the door for more players to do similar things.
Schilling is not one to shy away from talking, that is no secret, he’s a regular on WEEI and on Sons of Sam Horn (Gehrig38) so something like this isn’t really that much of a surprise but I am a little bit excited to see where he takes this.
His first real post, entitled Spring Training 2007 was great. It’s up at 38pitches.com right now and you should check it out (after you read this of course). In the spring training post he takes you through his starts and lets you know how and what he was feeling. It’s pretty cool to be able to hear what was going through his mind on the mound and see that he’s not fully comfortable with some of his pitches yet, while he is set with others.
I found it very interesting to read about a situation wear Varitek called for a fastball but Schilling didn’t want to throw it so he tried to shake Tek off but the Captain insisted so he threw it but Schill didn’t have it in his head that he could throw that pitch in that spot with confidence and it got crushed. I don’t think he threw Tek under the bus as much as he was just saying that the pitch got crushed because he threw it without confidence. I think that insight like that is great and it could add another dynamic to following the Sox. I don’t want to rehash the whole post but I found that part of particular interest.
Possibly the best part about Schilling’s blog is the fact that he enabled comments...so you can rip him if you so chose (as long as you use clean language) I can’t wait until he responds to a commenter with “Any dungeon master worth his weight in geldings…” No matter what your thoughts on Schilling are you have to admit the idea of his blog is a pretty cool one.
Check it out – 38pitches
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
