Confidential to Curt S: Do you want to wind up a pathetic old stumblebum like Jim B?

Yes, it's the famous bloody sock in which Curt
Schilling, torn tendon sheath and all, beat the
Yankees in game six of the 2004 AL LCS.

"Curt Schilling, the former major league pitcher who won the allegiance of Bostonians by leading the Red Sox to the 2004 World Series, said Wednesday that he has 'some interest' in running for the seat held for nearly 50 years by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy."

-- the AP, yesterday

by Ken

"That being said," the great ex-hurler went on, "to get to there, from where I am today, many, many things would have to happen." Nevertheless, according to the AP report: "Schilling told New England Cable News that he has been contacted 'by people whose opinion I give credence to,' but he did not elaborate. He declined to comment when The Associated Press called his office."

Let's give the guy a break. This is his first season in retirement (though not his first season out of uniform -- he missed all of last season with his shoulder problems), and it doesn't seem likely that he's settled into the kind of beer-distributorship situation that a player might once have been thrilled to retire to.

I can't imagine that anyone is serious about our Curt making a run for the Massachusetts Senate vacancy. But I am overtaken with dread that we are now doomed to a lifetime of speculation about his running for office -- until he either gets it out of his system or (cringe) does it.

Curt has been outspoken in his support for right-wing pols, and I would just encourage him to consider the cautionary example of another onetime Philadelphia Phillie, Jim Bunning, whose second career as a public crazyperson, now drawing to a humiliatingly pathetic close, may have caused people to forget what a truly stupendous pitcher he was. (At the same time, Bunning's heartbreaking descent into mental darkness, apparently already well advanced by the time of his 2004 reelection campaign, has tended to make people forget how crazy he was when he was still sane.)

Unlike Curt, who for all his prodigious gifts needed some swift kicks in the butt to become the pitcher he finally did (question: although he's unquestionably a Hall of Fame-caliber pitcher, with only 216 wins to show for his 20 seasons is he even a legitimate candidate for the Hall?), Bunning was simply a master of his craft. If you never saw him on the mound, well, you missed something. And I speak as a fan who mostly saw him against my Mets, who would have done little worse if they simply didn't show up on the days he pitched against them. The man was an artist with a baseball in his pitching hand. If he'd had Curt's arm and his stuff, he woulda won, I don't know, maybe 400 games. Make it 500 if he'd played on teams as good as Curt did.

I understand that when you've had an athletic career as successful as Curt Schilling has, it must be hellishly difficult to figure out what you do with the rest of your life. And it can't help when you've got foolish people telling you you're a natural to replace Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. What I'm trying to suggest to you, Curt, is that as you try to decide where you go from here, this ain't it.

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