38 Pitches

Well that day is here, finally. Today I’ll be ‘allowed’ to play catch for the first time since January. A lot has happened and there is probably even more left to do, but it’s a step.

As we were talking through things the other day a point I was trying to make to anyone involved was this. Not only do I need to get moving and throwing now, but everyone just assumes that we do X, which leads to Y, and we end up at Z. The “Z” being me pitching again. The thing is, we’re good, real good. I not only need to get healthy, but I need to be good as well…..

Just because I am healthy doesn’t mean I get the ball. I feel very confident about how I’ll be throwing when I come back, but I still have to “DO IT”, and be good at it.

I think we are all very happy with where I have come and how much improvement I’ve made, but at the end of the day we really are at the bottom of the mountain at this point. Throwing, bullpens, long toss, rehab games, those will start the clock ticking on the health of my shoulder and where it is at. The last few weeks I’ve been pushed extremely hard and in my mind if there were significant injury issues the fallout would have been pain, enough pain to notice and hinder our work. That hasn’t happened and that is obviously a great sign.

Having said that it still comes down to how the arm bounces back once we start putting a heavier load on the shoulder. We won’t be able to get there for a few weeks of throwing at least.

If we can get through that part, long toss and into bullpens, and the feel remains the same, then I think I’ll start getting excited about what might be.

To all of you that have offered support here I want to extend a sincere thank you.

For all of those that donated and were in attendance for the unveiling of the Schilling Fields this past week at Blake Middle School, thank you as well. It was a very special time and a day of memories that will last a lifetime. Seeing Mike McQuaid, my little league coach and life long friend was icing on the cake. Thanks to my wife Shonda for making that all happen.

Great starting pitching wins games, except, when the other teams starting pitchers are matching your guys. The rotation is coming along and the guys are starting to ramp it up. Any time you can be on a staff that sees each starter pushing the other, especially with a talented mix, great things happen and young pitchers get better faster.

John Farrell has positioned these guys in a way that they are all getting better, and will continue to do so. His teaching style is perfect, regardless of the student, and with the mix we have you could not ask for a better situation.

Josh is rounding into form, and I expect him to start running out there every 5th day and throw ‘can’t miss’ games more often than not. Jon Lester is getting it. His command is coming and when it does he’s going to be a force. Clay is just so damn natural you have a chance to see a 1-hit shut out any night he takes the ball. Dice is Dice. He’s got a year under his belt and is doing things that to me show he has learned and is continuing to learn how to get better here. Wake, well what can you say about Wake. He takes the ball every 5th day and you have a chance to win. Teams pay a premium for ONE guy like that on your staff.

Don’t fret the bullpen, every teams pen goes through stretches and ours is no different. They’ll figure it out and given how close Tuck has those guys they’ll do it together and this staff will start to do some pretty special things.

As far as offense goes, I know what I’ve watched. we’ve run up against some fantastic arms. I’ve thought Jason Shields was VERY good from the time I first saw him. Playing in Tampa means the world’s going to catch on to him later than others might. Doc was Doc, a horse and a stud. John matched him on a night when a lot of guys couldn’t and that was a great game. The McGowan kid has as electric an arm as any young pitcher in the game and on his good nights you’re lucky to scrap across 1-2 runs. A.J. is and always has been a no-hitter waiting to happen. I hope for our sake he never figures out that fastball command thing to any degree because if he does he takes it to another level.

Anyway, this team is going to hit, and score runs, and when it does I would bet the staff will be righted from front to back. Staying healthy is the key.

Rehab is going well. I am nearing that first day of throwing, just waiting impatiently to get the go ahead.

You just cannot throw a ball BEHIND someone when you are trying to throw a strike, or even a ball in. A stray breaking ball sure, but that’s even rare to impossible. A ball sailing behind a hitter, one that’s hit 2 bombs, is a ball being thrown at a guy.

The rule in place now gives umpires authority to eject a pitcher if for any reason he suspects a hitter is intentionally thrown at. How that didn’t happen with a veteran guy like Larry Vanover is beyond me.

The problem today is that the rule is so ambiguous, and you really have no idea what is going to happen from umpire to umpire (being that I have seen umpires eject pitchers for hitting batters with curve balls) that it’s almost a case where hitting a player in retaliation is almost more selfish and irresponsible than not. It used to be a very clear cut process, no matter how infantile, you purposely throw at our guy, we get one of yours, game over. Now it seems that you need to be the FIRST to do it, to avoid ejections and suspensions, and that’s with the hope that the umpire won’t just eject anyone and everyone he thinks is involved.

I understand the leagues desire to curb all the bench clearing crap being the motivator to give the umpires the ability to head problems off before they start, but tonight was a clear cut scenario that the rule was specifically created for, absolutely no doubt.

When you see the hitters the next inning acting very skittish and tentative on the 1st pitches of ABs you know that they know what’s going on.

At the end of the day, we win, so it’s all good, and there’s still 140 some games to play…….

What often goes unsaid when the topic of the Yankees and Curt Schilling is broached is probably more relevant than the conversation itself. First off I didn’t say I wanted to go there, or was going to go there. That’s a non-story, period.

Add to that the following. I’m 41, injured and rehabbing, and the personal history involved. To “GO” somewhere in this game takes two parties, and I would think it would be a safe bet that the Yankees, and their fans, will manage just fine without me ever donning pinstripes. No one ever thinks to follow the discussion to that point but it’s true.

As to the uproar today. It really is a non-story made into a story with second hand conversation and hearsay. I’m absolutely healthier, stronger and all the things you’ hope for at this point. I’ve spent 8 long weeks grinding away at this rehab, committing more time and effor than I think anyone thought going in. It’s paid off through today and the test results back that up.

That being said I have not thrown a baseball yet. That’s not a small thing. I will be the first to admit I expected the everyday pain to return within 3-4 weeks of the shot, but it has not. Every day I check in at the beginning of my workouts and the line of questioning is always the same “How is the shoulder today, 1-10″ and the worst day I have had pain wise since day 1 has been a 2, maybe a 3 tops.

The ankle has certainly become a sore spot and I think that’s more to do with the huge increase in cardio over the past few months, but even before that, back through 2005, the discomfort is something that’s just part of everyday living now. Explained to me was that one of the 4 surgeries done when they opened it up was to remove the ‘dead bone’ that had died during the season, and even with a subsequent shave of the surface to promote potential healing, nothing was guaranteed. I’ve never had arthritis but that is what it is I am told. So dealing with that is almost an afterthought, it’s there, it’s not going away, so dwelling on it, talking about it is not going to make it hurt more, less or change anything other than what’s on my mind, doing no one any good.

My left knee is a bit sore as well but I was made aware 13 years ago when I had it repaired that ’someday’ it would be an issue. I just didn’t expect some day to be while I was still playing. I had a small bucket handle tear of the meniscus and the two options were to stitch the tear, or remove the tear. Stitching meant longer rehab, less discomfort later, removing meant much faster rehab, with ramifications later. Hmm, not sure that was the smartest move.

The team looks good, very good. Please stop the Papi talk too. Check back in September when he’s at 305 30 something HRs and 100+ RBI’s, and then laugh at this uproar. Mike looked as good as I have seen him since I have been here last night. Big win last night. The pitcher in me felt horrible for Borowski, I just felt something had to be wrong given he looked like he was putting normal effort into the pitch but what was coming out was not his stuff. Hope it turns out ok for him.

For any WoW players out there, check out this mod, great product that we are in the midst of revamping at 38 Studios. Free trial and I think even the most veteran players will learn some very cool stuff they missed the first few times around!

Not the greatest picture, but it works. From left to right: 2007 WS Ring, 2004 WS Ring, 2001 WS Ring, 1993 NLCS Ring.

Pretty incredible day, from the rogue jet looping the formation on the flyover to seeing Bill Buckner finally lauded for being what he was, a great player, to Pesky and Ortiz raising our second world series banner in 4 years, today went off without a hitch.

Then add Dice-K dominating and us winning the home opener. Oh and one of the coolest parts was seeing our own Baghdad Jamie carrying the flag of Iraq onto the field for the pre game ceremony and Sox Nation, I think, had a pretty good day. P.S. Great to see you again Douggie! You better keep in touch!

Sarah Mckenna held her own today, and I think proved she’s up to the task of entertaining the fans of Sox Nation with pertinent, relevant and important people.

Now if we can find a way to get past the Tigers 2 more times before they wake up and become what we all know they will…….

Oh and one more thing, my ‘86 Sox are creeping back into contention as the season winds down….
Not many games left on the schedule

Finally have the links for fans in Philly, Az, Boston and Japan and anyone wishing to be a part of Curt’s Pitch around the world. The link for fans wishing to back Cole Hamels and the Philadelphia ALS Chapter:
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I had the privelage of meeting ALS patients and their families at the Tokyo Dome this morning prior to the exhibition game. There are 8,000 known ALS patients living in Japan. I would guess that there are 75% of that number living here undiagnosed as well.

The chapter has been here since 1986 and works in relative obscurity, which is unfortunate. We’re going to see if we can’t change that in 2008.

Curts Pitch 4 ALS is a program started 17 years ago. Basically Shonda and I donate $100 dollars per strikeout, and $1000 per win to the local ALS Chapter(s). What started as a program to benefit the Philadelphia ALS chapter run by our extraordinary friend and tireless advocate Ellyn Phyllips has now grown to encompass the Arizona and Boston Chapters of ALS.

The 2008 season, forgive the pun, of Curts Pitch has been thrown a curve. My shoulder problems are going to prevent me from pitching for quite a bit of the first half of the season. We were trying to find a way to insure that the local chapters don’t suffer because of this, and continue to raise money and awareness at the same time.

What I decided is this. Shonda and I will make donations to each of the chapters based on statistics of one of the local pitchers, you can see who I picked on the right. I have not spoken to any of these guys so they are probably not aware of this just yet. If they get involved great, but I would imagine they are likely already committted to charities of their own. No matter! We will donate to their chapters, and in 2008 we are adding the Japanese Chapter of ALS to the mix and will be donating to them based on Daisukes stats for the upcoming season!

In the very near future I will provide a link to a page that will allow fans of these players/teams to sign up for Curts Pitch to benefit the Chapter of their choice. I am hopeful that we can generate a massive amount of awareness for ALS in Japan as well, as I was told today none of the Japanese players is involved with ALS, and the ties are just too strong between the game and the disease to not try and make that happen.

In the meantime, anyone wishing to contribute or get involved with the Japanese ALS chapter please check out for information! Thanks and stay tuned!

That’s the name of the high school team that children of men and women serving at Camp Zama in Tokyo attend. Wake (his wife Stacey), Mike Timlin (and his son Jake), Brian Corey and I had the honor of being flown out in UH-60 Blackhawks to Camp Zuma this morning to say hello to the service men and women and their families.

Obviously it was a HUGE honor to allow us inside their lives even for a little bit today. One of the base commanding officers is a born and bred member of Sox Nation so that made the day even better.

Sox Nation was out in full force at the base as well and we had a chance to meet and sign autographs for the families stationed over here.

The flight out and back was a HUGE bonus and a blast, and the men of 011 and 012, that flew us out, did an awesome job. My only concern in chopper 011 was that my pilot was a Yankee fan! Even carrying that burden he was awesome and they did a great job giving us a top down view of Tokyo (which btw houses 14 million people in a city the size of Las Vegas).

I also had the awesome pleasure of meeting some members of “The Warlords” who I assume are stationed over here. These guys are an elite unit of flyers that have sent me some shirts over the past few years that I often wear under my uniform.

Thanks to everyone at Camp Zama for their incredible hospitality and graciousness. It was an honor to say hello today.

Well maybe not. Let’s start at the beginning.

Late last year we had confirmation of MLB’s desire for the Red Sox to open the 2008 baseball season in Japan. At first glance an exciting cool proposition. I have no idea what people were thinking but I know the players gave this a lukewarm reception at best, which deteriorated the deeper the discussion got.

There are so many pitfalls to doing things like this and pretty much all of them have to do with the long term impact of making this sort of pilgrimage in a short, tight timeframe. It had nothing to do with Japan, who wouldn’t want to go see it? It had nothing to do with anything other than the logistical nightmare that we knew would have an impact on us far beyond the 3-4 games we played there.

I happened to be one of five players on the conference calls that took place. The initial call, I think, startled those not in this organization.  I don’t believe MLB thought the players would have any objections and would be looking forward to the trip. To the contrary, on the initial call we actually told MLB we pretty much decided on not wanting to do this, and that as a club we’d voted not to go. 4-5 frantic phone calls ensued, and before they did we, the players, spoke at length about our position and the fact that we knew they would come back to us in short order. We decided to put together a list of requirements that would need to be met for the team to agree to make this trip. We understood the power of the Red Sox brand, the benefit to the game and the overall good will that could be created by making this trip, given that we had arguably the most famous Japanese born player in history as a teammate, and the most dominant left handed reliever in baseball last year, also a Japanese born player, on our team as well.

The demands were, at least to us, relatively minor and inconsequential when you factored in the revenue that would be generated by us agreeing to make this trip.

We wanted MLB to provide free transportation for the entire trip, from Ft Myers, to Japan, to LA, to Oakland, to Toronto, back to Boston, for any players and staff immediate families that desired to go.

We wanted the ‘staff’ to be compensated at the amount ‘guaranteed’ to the players, which we were told was to be at a minimum, 40,000 dollars. This topic was actually brought up on two separate occasions, both times it was agreed to and signed off on.

There were a few more items, none of them ground breaking or game changing, roster size, travel times, off days.

There is now much debate about one of the above topics, and that came to a head today, but to focus on that is a mistake. One by one the promises that were made at the time, were taken off the table. This happened, I guess, over the course of this past winter. Players were scattered all over the world, and many, most, had no idea. The discussions and negotiations were done with no knowledge of any of it, by players on this team, and I would assume Oakland as well.

No one party is to blame for any of this. First off everyone is at fault for not getting ALL of this in writing at the time of the agreement. Next, there is blame on both sides, both MLB and the MLBPA for not honoring the stipulations of the agreement that were made.

Basically the compensation piece is where the argument came to a nasty conclusion yesterday.

As I understand it, the compensation works like this. All of the revenue generated by ‘the gate’ during this tour is split 50/50. Half goes to MLB, the other half goes to the MLBPA. In the past the ‘staff’ of the teams was, as I understand it, compensated out of the 50% taken in by the MLBPA. This was negotiated OUT of the agreement at some point in the recent past by someone(s) in the MLBPA, unbeknown to us.

The reason we made a specific point to negotiate on behalf of the staff on this trip was just that. We wanted to insure that the staff accompanying this team on the trip was compensated fairly and in the same amount as the players regardless of which pool the money came from.

A quick history on why players, most, feel this way. The ‘staff’ as they are called, is made up of a group of incredibly passionate, hard working and devoted baseball people. From strength coaches, to head trainers, to BP coaches and catchers these are the members of our families that very rarely get recognition for putting in twice the effort and time we do as players, for 1/100^th the pay. Year after year they are the least appreciated and respected employees in many organizations.

Teams basically exert the power and influence they can’t on players, on these people. I know of instances where employees were given less of a Christmas Bonus because the club knew that person had received a share of World Series money, voted on by players. I know of other situations where these people have negotiated salaries with the teams telling them “you’re going to receive X$ for going on the Y trip”, so you won’t be getting a raise since you’ll be making X as total income.

These people make 40-50 to 75K a year. That’s not small potatoes but in an industry making over 6 billion a year in revenue it’s, well, it’s odd I guess.

This pretty much leads us to the events of yesterday. The players became aware of the coaches situation and called a players only meeting.

In a 30-0 vote we agreed that we would not take the field for the game, nor get on the bus for the trip to Japan if the agreement to compensate the staff was not honored.

When all was said and done this organization did what any good franchise would do. The ownership of this team agreed to ‘underwrite’ the amount we requested in hopes of getting MLB and the MLBPA to cut them a check to reimburse.

There is no one really blameless in all this, everyone shares at least some of the blame starting with me and the guys on the initial calls not getting all the agreed upon pieces in writing at that time. It snowballed from there and ended up with the events of yesterday.

I will say this though, I am proud as hell to be a part of a group of men who were absolutely 100% willing to not step on this plane and make this trip, knowing full well we would be in violation of our contracts, we’d potentially be forfeiting games and much much more, to stand behind a group of people that have very few supporters. Yes you could argue that doing that would have been disrespectful to the game, and fans, but we disagreed. In our minds anyone who had in mind to do what was right would have make the exact same decisions we did.

In the 20 years since I was first called up to the big leagues I’ve played with exactly 2 players who’s presence in the clubhouse carried onto the field. Darren Daulton in Philadelphia, and Doug Mirabelli here in Boston.

Very few players have that ability, and when they have it you know it. 4am landing in Toronto after a sweep, quiet plane, get on the bus for the 40 minute ride to the hotel, dead silence and everyone is wiped. By the time you got to the hotel the entire bus was laughing and the day was behind you. It’s a gift and Doug had it in spades.

He’ll be the first to admit he wasn’t a challenger for the batting title, or a gold glover, but he had a specific job and he was pretty damn good at it.

The hard part of talking about a friend and teammate in this situation is that he is replaced by someone that is now a friend and teammate. Who ever that is, he’ll fit in fine, but the personal side of this is always the worst

He was one of the better friends in all of baseball and I’ll miss him immensely. I know I am not speaking for myself either.

In this market with all that goes on off the field guys like Doug have so much value beyond the 100 or so ABs they get each year, but people can’t quantify that, and many dismiss it.

Your race, religion, background, none of that mattered to Doug, he could and did relate to everyone and was a HUGE piece of the puzzle here over the past 5 years I’ve been here.

To say it was a shock to us would be grossly understating the impact. Guys were still shellshocked today.

By the way Douggie, Youk had a yummy yummy hand in cribbage today, just wanted to pass that along.