For the love of the game
For sports fans, there is a currency of trust and admiration that we place in our favorite players. For the span of two to three hours, we make personal loans of our time and money in order to watch them perform. In return, they give us enjoyment and fire our imaginations.
When the end of the line comes for a sports hero, it is a somber moment for true fans. For myself and millions of baseball fans worldwide, I say goodbye to Curt Schilling.
A warrior-pundit
Ken Davidoff of Newsday writes that Schilling, like Barry Bonds before him, has “helped destroy the athletes as role models paradigm.” In the case of Schilling, however, he has knocked down false idols because it is in the best interests of the game of baseball. He always did this with a free, uncensored tongue, particularly when it came to the steroid controversy in Major League Baseball. Check out his blog 38pitches for this and more.
But I take issue with Davidoff over a number of points he attempts to make about Schilling. I acknowledge that I am a fan of Schilling, but the New York-based pundit Davidoff clearly shows his New York bias. What he calls Schilling behaving “like such a horse’s you-know-what,” I call him being outspoken about what he believes in. Some residual resentment from Schilling and his “bloody sock” performance against your beloved New York Yankees in 2004? Schilling helped “reverse the curse” of the Bambino for the Boston Red Sox and has always been a student of the game. Davidoff at least will acknowledge that.
A few of Davidoff’s thoughts on Curt Schilling(plus mine)
- He admits that Curt Schilling should probably be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Point.
- He suggests that the Yankees should have signed free agent Schilling a few years ago instead of allowing him to escape to the rival Red Sox. True, but you don’t get a point here, Ken. Baseball fans know the Yankees throw around mad money for players, but you betray your New York arrogance in assuming that everyone bows to the Yankees first before going to play somewhere else.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE OF WHAT Ken Davidoff feels he must mouth off about regarding Curt Schilling…
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I don’t think Schilling has destroyed the Athlete as a role model. He doesn’t have much nice to say about some other people, but a lot of sportsmen could have that said about them. Besides, I think a lot of people miss a basic point about professional sports that is an ugly truth about it. Players are paid to win games in order to get people to watch said games, buy concessions and merchandise. I doubt that Steinbrenner or any other team owner cares about how well their players behave as long as it doesn’t keep people from buying stuff.