Curt Schilling Blasts the "Weak 'Men'" in Sox Ownership Who Didn't Include Him Among the 2004 Team

Noticeably absent from the 2004 Red Sox contingent that threw out the first pitch last night was Curt Schilling. A group that consisted of Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, Tim Wakefield, Allen Embree and others, couldn’t find room for the guy who came as close as you can get – strictly in a sports sense – to doing something “heroic” that season.  Which seemed more than just an oversight, given that Schilling lives local and is obviously not exactly a recluse when it comes to speaking in public.

So it was hard not to jump to the conclusion that Schilling’s omission was personal. Or, more to the point, political. The Bloody Sock is an unapologetic conservative with zero filter and even fewer fucks given who does political talk shows and is out campaigning for Republicans. Red Sox ownership refused to show up to the White House in 2004 when the way less polarizing Republican president hosted their team. So most of the speculation was that they just want to put some distance between themselves and Schilling. For their part, a team executive told the Boston Globe “We did not reach out to him, but it is not out of spite.”

So, as you’d expect if you’ve been paying attention for the last 14 years, Schilling was not about to exercise his right to remain silent. According to his Facebook post, it wasn’t at all political, was out of spite and very, very personal:

What they did, or did not do, tonight was done 100% on purpose and completely expected.

Were my feelings hurt? In one sense, yes, not being able to be on the field with the men who I will always share that 2004 bon with and not being able to once again thank the folks who paid for the tickets and whose lives changed with ours sucks . …

White privileged rich “men” hate me? People, who have and will again ruin others lives to make themselves appear flawless? People who’ve never broken a sweat, cried and or bled for something bigger than themselves think ill of me? I think that’s exactly what my father would have wanted from me as a man, husband and father. …

The men who sit in that ivory tower and pass their judgment from on high know EXACTLY what I did and it shames them as men knowing they’ll never in their lives be able to do anything remotely close to that.

I can wake up tomorrow and peek at the 3 WS Trophies, or put on the 3 WS Rings and know what was and is. I don’t need a ceremony to know what we did that year.

I believe to this day that year made all the subsequent years possible and ONLY that group of men could do what we did.

So no, I didn’t get invited, I didn’t get snubbed.

I just didn’t get an invitation from a few weak ‘men’ who’ve spent their entire lives paying and watching other men achieve.

By way of background, he linked to a podcast he did in 2016 that explained where things went all divorcey between him and ownership. Because you’re time is valuable to me and I had trouble getting out of bed this morning, I listened to it for you. And the upshot is that when he signed his last contract with the Sox in 2008, for one year and $8 million, he started feeling trouble with his shoulder. He went to a specialist who had worked on him before, and that doctor recommended surgery that would have him laid up six months but back to 100 percent by the All Star break. Sox management disagreed and wanted to rehab it instead, and Schilling went along. Then, he says, he got called into a room with John Henry, Larry Lucchino, Tom Werner, Theo Epstein and Terry Francona, and ownership accused him of lying to them. Of stealing their 8 million Henrybucks and they wanted out of the contract.

He goes onto say that when the team opened the season in Tokyo, every player was to get $130,000 for the trip and the coaches were to get $65,000. Which is apparently huge money for them because some of them barely make $90,000 a year. (Note: I had no idea they made so much less than everyone around them, but I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.) Anyway, in Spring Training Schilling and Kevin Youkilis were the union reps and they found out that team management reneged on the deal and weren’t going to pay the coaches. So they went first to Francona and then to Epstein and told them that if ownership didn’t keep their promise to pay the coaches, the players were not taking the field in Florida, nor would they make the trip Japan. And eventually the team caved in. But not before – again, according to Schilling – Lucchino lied to the players’ faces about the whole affair. And ownership never forgot their grudges against him.

To be clear, Schilling doesn’t hold anything against Tito or Theo, who he says supported him in both instances. And in his version, he eventually had to have the surgery, was out the six months but came all the way back like the doctor said. But once he realized he could throw again, he walked away from the game. The damage was done. And apparently mutual since Red Sox ownership is pretty much wiping him from their history like an Unperson in 1984. It’s goddamned petty and ridiculous that they’d hold a 10 year grudge against someone who delivered two World Series to them over what amounts to what David Price makes in five weeks or Pablo Sandoval’s annual french fry consumption. Especially for a team with unlimited resources in a league with no salary cap. And you don’t have to like Schilling personally or even tolerate his worldviews to acknowledge they are way wrong not to welcome him with open arms at the end of a red carpet covered in rose petals for what he did in 2004. End this horseshit, now.