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Jimcs50
10-20-2004, 01:49 PM
For Schilling, a Premier Pitching Line
By DAVE ANDERSON

Published: October 20, 2004


EARS from now, when Curt Schilling looks back on his Hall of Fame credentials, he may well consider it the most important one-game pitching line in his career: 7 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts.

Schilling wasn't wearing the special Reebok shoe designed to support the dislocated tendon in his right ankle while working those seven sturdy innings that enabled the Red Sox to win, 4-2, last night and create a decisive Game 7 with the Yankees tonight in the American League Championship Series.

"I don't think people have any idea what Schill went through out there," Terry Francona, the Red Sox manager, said later. "Our medical staff actually sutured that area with stitches, but his heart and his wanting to compete made this happen."

Schilling had twice tested hightop shoes over the weekend while throwing in the bullpen at Fenway Park, but he wore the same shoes he had worn in the series opener on Oct. 12, when he was shelled for six runs and six hits in three innings as the losing pitcher in the Yankees' 10-7 victory.

"I couldn't wear the hightops," he said, "because they put too much pressure on the ankle."

Schilling dismissed the idea that he had pitched through tremendous pain for seven innings.

"I don't know if pain was the thing," he said. "Seven years ago I became a Christian, and tonight God did something amazing for me. I just prayed for the opportunity to go out there and compete, and he did it for me."

Francona was asked if he had considered letting Schilling pitch to the Yankees in the eighth inning.

"When you see Schill tell the umpire, 'Good job,' " he replied, "I'm not sending him out there."

With the weary Red Sox bullpen needing several strong innings from Schilling, he had to be effective into the late innings. And he was more effective than any Red Sox loyalist could have hoped for, leaving with a 4-1 lead.

"I couldn't push off," Schilling said of his ailing ankle after the opener. "It affected both my command and my velocity."

Schilling questioned whether he would be able to pitch in the series again, but Reebok quickly assembled several new shoes.

"When Curt aggravated his tendon in the division series against Anaheim, I was in Hong Kong when I got a phone call that he wanted a more substantial shoe," Don Gibadlo, the director of promotional footwear for Reebok, said yesterday in a telephone interview from the company's Canton, Mass., headquarters. "That's when I got our people in China working on a hightop shoe to give him more support."

Another hightop shoe was assembled at the Canton plant and in the hours before Game 3 at Fenway Park was rained out Friday night, Schilling threw in the Red Sox bullpen.

"That night Curt wore both the shoe that Don Jones, our pattern enginer, made here and the one that arrived from China," Gibadlo said. "Curt's been wearing our shoes since 1995 when he was with the Phillies, and we give him 10 pairs a season. We took components from shoes similar to what he was wearing, then we opened up the heel area to make it higher and to have more support for the ankle. We put foam all around the ankle and even above the ankle."

Even though Schilling threw Friday night without as much discomfort, he was not completely satisfied with the new shoes.

"He wanted a shoe that was half a size larger," Gibadlo said. "He wears size 12, so Dan Jones made one in about six hours that was size 12½. After Curt threw in the bullpen Sunday night with the larger shoe, I talked to him at his locker in the clubhouse and he told me, 'This is exactly what I needed.' "

In the end, he didn't need it at all.

Schilling's injury was described in June as a "bruised ankle joint," but it gradually worsened. The dislocated tendon diagnosis didn't develop until after Schilling was hit hard in the A.L.C.S. opener. Before Game 2, the Red Sox' orthopedist, William Morgan, said that Schilling will need ankle surgery after the season.

Ever since Schilling, who helped the Arizona Diamondbacks surprise the Yankees in the 2001 World Series, joined the Red Sox last November as a free agent with a two-year $25.5 million contract extension, he has been considered the difference-maker in Boston's quest to win a World Series for the first time since 1918.

"There is a history of misery here that they want to get rid of so bad," he said in June. "They want to win a world championship. You can feel it. You can feel it when you take the ball and walk on the field. I think it's a huge plus. For me it is anyway."

And last night Curt Schilling replaced that history of misery with a vision of hope.

Jimcs50
10-20-2004, 01:52 PM
Curt Schilling just called ARod out on Jim Rome. He said it was a stupid ass play and was bush league and he lost all respect for him. He was upset that ARod tried to argue the call, not that he tried it in the heat of the moment, but that he was arguing to the ump, like he was wrong. I am sure ARod will get wind of this. What other player in baseball would call out the best player in the major leagues? Unbelievable.

Marcus Bryant
10-20-2004, 01:56 PM
If it leads to that player doing dumb things to 'get even' then it was a good move.

Yonivore
10-20-2004, 02:00 PM
Curt Schilling just called ARod out on Jim Rome. He said it was a stupid ass play and was bush league and he lost all respect for him. He was upset that ARod tried to argue the call, not that he tried it in the heat of the moment, but that he was arguing to the ump, like he was wrong. I am sure ARod will get wind of this. What other player in baseball would call out the best player in the major leagues? Unbelievable.
That was pretty classless though.

I agree, you can't fault A-Rod for trying to reach safely. Giving up and accepting the tag wasn't an option...interference was the only choice (other than leaving the baseline and that don't cut it in MLB -- "Crying? There's no crying in baseball!"). But, once you're busted and you know it, don't incite a riot by arguing the call. Of course, Torre had to back him up by going out there and kicking dirt too...

Sad display and, I think Joe Torre and A-Rod realized it when the trash started flying in from the bleachers...Yes, people do believe in you!

I also put Marsh (1st base umpire) up there with A-Rod. Not only did he blow the interference call (arguably because he a bad angle), he also was very quick to call A-Rod safe at first -- even though he'd clearly missed the bag. Think he was caught sleeping on the play.