Why is Curt Schilling Beyond Reproach?
Blondie goes on to say that something should be done to Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro as punishment for admitting they used/tested positive for steroids. He wants Canseco’s MVP taken away from him and given to the guy who finished second in voting. (Mike Greenwell whole-heartedly agrees.) He suggests voiding the final year of Palmeiro’s career, thus taking away his 3,000th hit. Stupid, stupid ideas, but hey, to each his own. I don’t care what Schilling thinks about the guys who have failed tests and/or admitted to using roids. The thing that really gets my goat is how he acts like he’s beyond reproach. Here’s his quote:
"If someone wrote that stuff about me and I didn't sue their [butt] off, am I not admitting that there's some legitimacy to it?" Well, Curt, here's the evidence that everyone is convicting Barry Bonds on:
 Compelling? Yes. Definitive? No. Obviously, not the only evidence against Bonds, but it’s really the only evidence that can be verified by the general public. We can do the same with McGwire:
 I think McGwire's growth is less damning, because he always had the frame for adding the muscle, and he could've seen gains like that without roids. But that's neither here nor there. The point of this entire post is that there is no way anyone can definitively say Curt Schilling did not use steroids, HGH or any other performance enhancing drug. In fact, the only reason his name hasn't come up is he's made such a spectacle of himself in speaking out against the offenders. He who smelt it, dealt it? You be the judge:
 The picture on the right is from 2001, the height of the roid era. Notice how much larger Schilling’s head is? More circumstantial evidence: In 2000, with the Phillies and the Diamondbacks, Schilling pitched 210 innings, struck out 168 batters and finished with a 3.81 ERA. In 2001, at the tender age of 34, he threw 259 innings, striking out 293 and finishing with a 2.98 ERA. The following year was even better, 259 innings, 316 strike outs, 3.23 ERA. The best years of his career came in a hitter’s park at the ages of 34 and 35. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the bloody sock was legit. Let’s assume that he was in intense pain, and barely able to walk when he took the hill for that fateful ALCS game in 2004. How did he do it? Was there something “performance enhancing” coursing through his veins? Who knows. Would it surprise me? No. It’s always struck me as ironic that Schilling blasts the “roid era” at every opportunity when he fits the profile of an enhancer to a tee:
The list of players who meet some or all of these criteria is long, very long. To be honest, I think there’s a reason for that. I think roid use was widespread in the sport. No player is beyond reproach because no player can positively prove he never took steroids. When we hear about players being “clean” in this era, it’s an opinion, pure and simple. It means that player doesn’t fit any of the criteria listed above. You sure can’t say that about Schilling, can you? So, Mr. Schilling, I’ve just said about you exactly what people have said about McGwire and Bonds. Are you going to sue me? If you don’t, I guess we should take that as an admission of guilt. 11 Comments | Leave a commentLeave a commentLatest Posts• The Rockettes Come To Town • Iguoadala As Playmaker • Welcome To The Network • Stefanski Does the Legwork • I Hate Texas • Can They Salvage the Trip? • Dirk Is Still A Bright, Shining Star • The Trip Continues In Dallas • The Celtics Deserve Stephon Marbury • Ending On A High Note • Closing Out 2008 • Four Factors, New WorksheetSearchBlogs in The NetworkSixers BlogsPassion and Pride Sixers 4 Guidos Liberty Ballers Recliner GM | ||||||||||||||||
Curt Schilling, blogger, painted-sock hero, over-the-hill and oft-injured pitcher has opened his gigantic trap, yet again (ahem, see picture at right). Here’s the link to the latest 
Excellent, excellent article, Brian. If you're in line to be sued by Schilling, then I'll be in that line too. It's about time someone called out the non-stop mouth.
I'm tired of Schilling getting a free ride and exemption from scrutiny. Even when he was in Philly, he was a huge pain in the ass.
When Schilling was traded to Philly from Houston in 1991 or 1992, he was struggling with a near 4. ERA. In his first four years, the most innings he pitched was 75 in 1991. Then suddenly he starts racking up the strikeouts and innings pitched. His fastball starts clocking in between 97 and 98 mph.
But as you aptly pointed out in an earlier conversation, there's a double standard about pitchers taking steroids. When a pitcher suddenly gains 5 mph on his fastball, no one cries foul.
As for the pics of Bonds that are used as 'evidence' of steroids.. how many guys would that kind of pictoral 'evidence' condemn? How many players gain 30, 40 or even 50 lbs. over the course of their careers?
And Jose Canseco's response to Schilling? "Schilling is a hypocrite and a liar." Is he gonna sue Canseco now?
I'm a Red Sox fan, but I've never been a Schilling fan (largely due to his extreme support of his president, George W. Bush, but I digress). He is a loudmouth. And it's absurd. If you want to know the definition of "holier than thou," just look at Curt Schilling.
At this point, I hope he can't come back from the DL and Kason Gabbard takes his spot permanently.
JJ,
I don't know if he used roids or not, and I don't really care. That goes for everyone in the league, to be honest with you. Baseball needs to make their testing practices air-tight, and get the drugs out of the sport going forward. It serves no purpose to try to prove who was and was not using in the past.
Shilling is just an ass, and he needs to put a filter between his pea brain and his mouth. Simple as that. It bugs me that people don't call him on his B.S.
Thanks for the comment, as always you make some excellent points.
Erin,
It's rough when a player on your team's actions make you want to root against him.
As a player you can't deny he's been great, but as a person, he's just a moron. Unfortunately, I don't think retirement is going to make him shut up.
I benched Gabbard on my fantasy team today, so he'll probably throw a shutout tonight.
Erin and Brian, you make a great point. You can't deny that Schilling's put up some great numbers, but he's been such a loudmouth everywhere he goes that he creates enemies even in his own team, management and fanbase. What makes him think that being a ball player makes him an expert on politics, war, religion, morality and steroids?
Amd as Brian pointed out, don't expect him to quietly fade away in retirement. Supposedly he wants to go into politics after his career as a ballplayer is over... the perfect job for a bubbleheaded windbag.
Also, Schilling was on those early 90's Phillies team, the one with a lot of steroids in the clubhouse - Lenny Dykstra, John Kruk, etc. Um, he didn't notice or know anything? That's like being the owner in Texas with Pudge and Canseco and Juan Gonzalez and being clueless.
You can believe that if you want, or you can accept the fact that baseball probably looked the other way because it needed to save itself after the strike. Period.
Baseball has been looking the other way for a long, long time. Roids were in baseball long before the strike, and cocaine before that, and speed before that.
You're absolutely right about Schilling. At the very least, he was part of a team with a huge roid problem (Dykstra, Darren Daulton, etc.) at worst he was a user himself.
Schilling did improve dramatically when he came to the Phils, putting in over 200 innings and throwing 97-98 mph fastballs his first year after four years of struggling. I follow pitchers closer than I do other players, and he was nowhere near that good in Houston.
I also remember how huge Dykstra and Daulton got when they showed up to spring training the one year.... Dude went from a skinny scrappy guy to looking like a bus. Working out for three or four months just doesn't accomplish that.
The way I see it,
Steroids was so prominent in the league that it effected every clubhouse. Bonds earned his HRs facing steroid enhanced pitching, which negates the whole advantage. His numbers are as honest as anyone else's, pitchers included.
Brian this is a good piece of writing that deserves more discussion and consideration and every sports writer out there who calls Bonds a cheater should read this.
Well, they busted Barry Bonds' personal trainer for possesion of performing enhancing drugs, didn't they? His ex-girlfriend testified before a grand jury that he was on the stuff, didn't she? It's a bit more involved than just looking at his head size. McGwire's answering "I'm not here to talk about the past" to the Senate hearing and his subsequent withdrawl from, like, going outside or talking to anyone outside his gated community, along with the disintegration of his tendons and ligaments and stuff at the end there are much more damning to my eyes than any head-size comparison, not that the photos you chose allow a real comparison.
Schilling got totally fat, that's pretty clear from the photos of him you chose. His hat is so far down on his head in the 2001 picture that you can't see any of his skull -- that's where the big changes seemed to take place in Bonds.
Sorry for being repetitive, but I wish sports writers in NY, Philly and Boston for starters would read your comments on Schilling. So many writers are only into "Barry bashing" and overlook the rest of the baseball world's steroid use and none have the cujones to call out Schilling. Again, good for you in doing so.
Wasn't Mr. Giambi on roid's in 2003? Yea he was, he even admitted it. But not one comment from anyone. Short, short memory. Two cheating homers that no one mentions? Just before his 'parisite's' and mystery illness? Why do those two juiced homers count in game 7. Don't hear any crying in Boston do you? No instead Aarron Boones a hero? and Schills sock was painted?
Painted sox? He may be a big mouth. But he did the 'Real' thing. Many of you still feel the sting. The 'Big Slap'. But don't ever mention winning in the playoffs cause Giambi cheat instead you say Schilling faked it. Now just how sad you do sound when you write something that isn't even true and you dont even mention how your team benifited greatly? How Giambi's contract specifically has the words, 'steriods' dropped from the wording. And you still lost. Paint yourself in a corner and stay there.