No Quarter for Schilling

Derek Zumsteg

Baseball franchises aren't much different than Kinko's franchises. Location determines a franchise's viability, few are good at customer service, many are poorly managed from the top down, there's a ton of money in them, and they're plagued by stupid politicking. The big difference is that every Kinko's franchise doesn't have 20-50 people devoted just to covering the fortunes of the store.

I'm reminded of this by Curt Schilling's recent trial-by-media. Schilling is, at heart, a good, smart guy. He doesn't bitch about his contract or his money, and he's endured years and years of losing baseball in Philadelphia, regarded as a hometown hero there. Curt's been trying to get team management to put a winning team on the field for years, and gotten nowhere. He's a little bitter and pessimistic that his team will make the late-season trades necessary to stay in contention. And with good reason -- the Phillies haven't done much more than put a team on the field for years.

"I haven't seen any signs the last few years from ownership that they're committed to helping us win a ball game," he said recently, setting a roomful of reporters running for the pay phones ("This just in: Curt on warpath as team drops two"). And besides signing Scott Rolen (smart), he's right.

Schilling wants to play for a team that's not a doormat. He wants ownership to trade for available pitchers, mentioning Radke and Rogers by name.

What Schilling got for (again) being straight with reporters was a series of whippings. "Schilling apparently can't read the standings," they say, "because this team's a winner!"

Anyone looking at the Phillies roster has got to see some anomalies (Desi Relaford, Lieberthal...) and maybe Schilling, wisely, doesn't want to say that he doesn't think they're really this good. But let's ignore that.

What I don't understand, and can't, is why Curt Schilling, who has never openly lied about his intentions, always been honest about his feelings about playing, willing to talk about his game and being a power pitcher who can think, can't get a break. He doesn't chase kids down in his car, he doesn't make outrageous statements about his desire to get 'market value' (which he doesn't), or beat his wife with a telephone or a run into her with a car. He's just a good guy.

But Gary Sheffield gets away with griping about his situation in Florida for months, saying he'd do anything to get out (but not renegotiating his contract to make him tradable to anyone but Pastaman Lasorda ... and then demanding a $5M payment to waive the no-trade clause he'd previously said he'd be willing to wave gratis), openly lying about what he wants to anyone with a microphone.

There are a dozen high-profile players who signed multi-year deals for security and now scream to get out instead of dealing with a compromise they made. And there are players sliding on the back end of multi-year deals they signed with clubs that need them to at least try hard enough to allow a trade.

There's a host of players with cloudy domestic abuse incidents, some verified, many involving cops showing up to find a wife who slipped while trying to get away from a swung bat, no charges filed.

Instead of reading columns going after the louts of baseball, leading us to overlooked young stars, or lauding the good, solid players, I read columns laughing at Curt Schilling for wanting to play for a contender.

I don't find this neglect of opportunity and responsibility funny. There are better things to do with the public's ear than to mock someone responsible who doesn't speak in cliches and hand you a nice, neat, game-related sound-bite.

If that's what they really want, they should go interview the Orioles. Schilling has games to win.

Learn to ask the tough questions to the game's most brutish players at the Derek Zumsteg Famous Sportswriters School, where he'll also show you how to follow up with the duck-and-cover technique. Enroll now at dmz@strikethree.com.

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