Friday, April 27, 2007

The Bloody Sock: Selling the Drama; MLB Stuffage

Selling the Drama - Schilling and More on the Sock: Well, Curt Schilling is now out to prove that his sick was indeed bloody with crimson red. He offered $1 million to anyone who could prove it was not blood that blotted his famous sock in the 2004 playoffs, and criticized members of the media in his blog, 38 Pitches, on Friday.


from his entry, 'Ignorance Has It's Privledges'

"When I walked into the room for the post game interviews and offered up my first response to the questions about the game I basically said that the night was a revelation for me. That my faith in God that evening showed me things I’d never believed. As I uttered those words I could see pretty much every person in that room roll their eyes and smirk. That’s not what any of them wanted to hear, truth or not. That was not good copy. They needed more and what I didn’t give them, they got themselves."

and...

Take Gary Thorne, John, Jack Joe or whatever his first name is, Heyman, Karen Vescey, Woody Paige, CHB, Jay Marriotti, Bill Plaschke, and a host of other people that litter the media landscape, and put them all on an island somewhere.

Does anyone stop reading their newspapers? Watching the shows they appear on? The answer to that is no. Instead of using the forums they participate in to do something truly different, change lives, inspire people, you have an entire subset of media whose sole purpose in life is to actually be the news, instead of report it. They have little to no talent at what they do and other than a mastery of the English language their skill sets are non-existent.

also...

It was blood. You can choose to believe whatever you need to, but facts are facts. The 25 guys that were in that locker room, the coaches, they all know it. In the end nothing else really matters. The people that need to believe otherwise are people with their own insecurities and issues.


Wow. I knew it was blood...

I'm siding with Curt on this one, but there has to be a time where you have to forgive and forget rather than extend a story, you know?

I feel bad for Gary Throne and I’m sure it was an embarrassment to have attention brought onto him for a comment he made during a slow point of the game; however, Throne was a little silly in saying what he did.

Throne, as a long time commentator should have known better, especially the importance of the ’sock’ to Red Sox Nation.

***

John Smoltz and his Contract Extension: It looks like John Smoltz will be a Brave for even longer. According to the AP, he agreed to a contract extension yesterday that could be worth $39 million.

In the report, it says that the new contract also includes a $12 million option for 2009 that becomes guaranteed if Smoltz pitches 200 innings the previous season. The club has an option for 2010, at a cost of $13 million if he pitches 200 innings in '09 or $12 million if he falls short of that total.

Sammy Slams Two: Sammy Sosa's two homers set a major league record as he homered in his 44th ballpark at Cleveland's Jacobs Field. He had been tied with Ken Griffey Jr., and Fred McGriff with homers in 43 ballparks. He’s now got 594 career homers, 6 short of 600.

Gregg Zaun on the Shelf: Blue Jays’ catcher Gregg Zaun had surgery on his broken right thumb and is expected to miss six to eight weeks.

Torii Hunter Hit in the Mouth: Twins centerfielder Torii Hunter needed three stitches to close a cut on the inside of his mouth after he was hit by a pitch from Kansas City's Zack Greinke, and is okay. He should play today.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As someone who has been in the moment of the World Series, how did Jim Palmer not put Thorne in his place? Plenty of times on NESN, former major leaguer Jerry Remy has made points to correct the color guy, not in a mean way, but to validate the accomplishments of those that have done it. On behalf of anyone who played in the big game, gave a little extra when needed, maybe at the cost of some worse feelings the next few days--which probably includes himself--Palmer should have corrected Thorne that it was a pretty big deal for him to get that surgery--that had never been done before--just to pitch a baseball game, and not some stunt he did for PR.

As a long time broadcaster, Thorne has a responsibility to himself and his profession to get more details for something like this before just running with some third party information. Saying his excuse was miscommunication doesn't make him look any better, just lazy. He should be better than that. Learn how to ask a follow up question Gary.

And I realize that comes off as a crazy defense of Schilling. It's more of a criticism of the media running with the first story they get, not checking facts, and a month down the line that get what really happened.

Ian said...

former major leaguer Jerry Remy has made points to correct the color guy

Jerry Remy is the color guy.

Anonymous said...

Gary Thorne doesn't owe a damn thing to Red Sox Nation. They get plenty as it is.

Anonymous said...

Obviously Gary Thorne doesn't owe Red Sox Nation anything. I'm not looking for an apology, just some integrity. People on TV and in the media just can't go an say baseless comments because they overheard one thing from someone regarding it.

It'd be like Remy saying he overheard Ripken was on steroids and that's why he broke Gherig's record. (Not sure if I spelled that correctly, I know there are a bunch of fact checkers on this site, so I apologize.) He can't just say that on their air, calling into question the man's reputation without doing more and more research.

What Ripken did was huge, and as a fan of baseball I watched in appreciation as he did something memorable. But I suppose my initial comments aren't so way off base if the only two comments about it are that I mislabeled Remy's role on the NESN broadcast (sorry, English degree, not communications) and was misread as looking for Gary Thorne's devotion to my team.

Unknown said...

M&M -- I agree, no doubt...

Unknown said...

Neal S, Gary does not owe anyone anything, but he was wrong in this case.

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