We have reached the final frontier of the U.S. teams – Alaska and Hawai’i. The nickname 59ers comes from the year, half a century ago, when the two became the last states to join the union.

They’re combining for obvious reasons – small populations and not a whole lot of history. Alaska has just 11 players, the fewest of any state, but has sent one to the big leagues in back-to-back years for the first time in its history. Last year it was the A’s Aaron Cunningham; this year it was Diamondbacks pitcher Daniel Schlereth, the son of NFL lineman Mark.

Hawai’i has produced 35, so together there is still a smaller talent base than the entire First State of Delaware (remember them, a long long time ago?) and any other standalone state. The pitching here is going to make things a little bit interesting, however. Alaskan Curt Schilling and Hawai’ians Charlie Hough, Sid Fernandez and Ron Darling should mean the 59ers will have a chance to stay close. And Scott Feldman, a 17-game winner with Texas last season, could become the fifth member of that rotation someday.

They’ll have to rely heavily on that pitching staff because there’s not a lot of offense here. There aren’t a lot of non-pitchers, period. Benny Agbayani, Mike Lum, Josh Phelps, Shane Victorino … those are your big hitters. So look for a lot of 3-2 type games. Maybe they can steal a few.

There are no managers from either the 49th or 50th states. I’ll tap Tony Rego, a catcher with the 1924-25 St. Louis Browns. He did manage in the minor leagues, and he’s going to be on the team as a catcher. He was 5-foot-4, so I’d guess he was more like a John McGraw-type manager.

Almost there. Three more to go – all outside the U.S. Who’s the best American team? There are a handful of candidates for that designation. I’ll make some guesses at it in a few more posts.

ALASKA/HAWAI’I 59ERS

OF Benny Agbayani
LH Doug Capilla
LH Steve Cooke
OF Aaron Cunningham
RH Ron Darling
LH Carlos Diaz
RH Scott Feldman
LH Sid Fernandez
RH Charlie Hough
OF Michael Huff
UT Randy Kutcher
OF Scott Loucks
OF Mike Lum
1B Joey Meyer
OF Prince Oana
1B Josh Phelps
CA Tony Rego (mgr)
UT Lenn Sakata
OF Bronson Sardinha
CA Dane Sardinha
RH Curt Schilling
2B Steve Staggs
CA Kurt Suzuki
OF Shane Victorino
RH Milt Wilcox
RH Dave Williams
RH Jerome Williams
RH Tyler Yates

Next: Across the Pacific.

Ich hab damals Papierjacken getragen

eine weiße, eine pinke

und Hosen mit einem Strich auf der Seite,

Legwarmers waren irgendwie auch Thema

Ohrenschützer aus Plüsch in pink

zu Grease haben wir nicht mehr getanzt

Rocky Horror schon eher

Nina Hagen war sehr jung damals

Hesse schon tot

die Beatles noch nicht kitschig

die Stones mochten wir nie

abends drehten wir uns Locken aus Klopapier

morgens sind wir auf Vespas hintendrauf in die Schule gefahren

die Welt gehörte uns.

Heut gehört sie mir immer noch

und hinter mir die Sintflut.

oder wie meine liebe Freundin Betty malt:

Heute hinter mir die Lotusblume.

P.S: Diesen Beitrag hätt ich nie geschrieben, hätt ich nicht von meiner

alten, schönen, gscheiten, talentierten, hochbegabten Künstler- und ChoachFreundin

dieses Bild geschickt bekommen, als Kommentar quasi.

Und da fiel mir plötzlich alles wieder ein:

New York, London, Paris Munich, everybody talked about POPMUSIC,

DA DA DA Das war viel später dann

die Freitagmorgen Pflichtmessen, Zigaretten im Cafe Eos, Betties blaue, Kurze Haare,

dann waren sie weiß, dann grün oder schwarz  – was weiß ich

irgendwelche Werte wird es schon gegeben haben damals.

Ach ja und da war dann noch der Schilling…..

Ihr Lieben bevor ich jetzt noch von Wickie, Slime und Paiper anfange,

geh’ ich lieber ins Bett

ganz heimlich, still und leise.

Ein wenig sentimental, dafür sehr müde und weise.

oder

oder

selbst der Anblick von diesen Fetzen Papier ist irgendwie voll Wehmut

Some promising, surprising and ludicrous names are popping up in 2010 election conversations. In the coming weeks, I will be writing briefly about these names/people, what they are saying, and what is being said about them.

♦ PROMISING ♦

Carly Fiorina

Republican, U.S. Senator for California

Although Fiorina hasn’t officially declared her candidacy, it’s all but certain that this former Hewlett-Packard CEO will duke it out with Sen. Barbara Boxer for the California Democrat incumbent’s seat in the U.S. Senate. The Republican announced in mid-August that she filed papers to “start exploring a candidacy.”

Fiorina has been steadily increasing her presence in the political sphere the last couple years, most notably as an adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008.  It was then that talk of her future in politics began at a moderate buzz, as seen in this interview with FOX News’ Chris Wallace in the spring of 2008.

She’s an unabashed fiscal conservative who hasn’t been afraid to call out the Obama Administration, particularly on their arbitrary decisions regarding executive compensation.

Given California’s dire economic condition, it will be interesting to hear her campaign proposals for remedying the state’s spiraling fiscal crisis.

♦ SURPRISING ♦

Curt Schilling

Independent, U.S. Senator for Massachusetts

When I think of the Great 38, I see the man standing on the pitcher’s mound, bloodied sock (single tear running down my cheek), leading the Red Sox to a win in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees – forcing a Game 7. That was his first year playing for the Sox. It was also the year the Sox finally brought an end to the Curse of the Bambino.

I try not to let my undying affection for Schilling as an athlete, and what he did for my team (GO RED SOX) cloud my assessment of his potential in politics or the likelihood that he can win the seat left vacant by the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy as a Republican in a true-blue, Democrat state. But if he tackles important issues for America with equal, unwavering dedication and fortitude, I am confident he will do well.

Schilling is well known among political wonks, and Red Sox fans, to have been an ardent supporter of the Bush 43 administration. And in 2008, Schilling threw his support behind John McCain. He even went so far as to publicly criticize McCain’s opponents - particularly Democrat Hillary Clinton for her continual swipes at Republicans on the handling of the Iraq War.

Although he hasn’t listed any specific campaign platform issues, he certainly isn’t afraid to let folks know what angers him about modern politics.

How in the hell has a state with supposedly as intelligent a voter base as Massachusetts allowed itself to be run into the ground by entrenched and often times corrupt ‘me first’ politicians?

                                       – Curt Schilling, from his blog “38 Pitches”

♦ LUDICROUS ♦

Eliot Spitzer

Democrat, hasn’t yet decided on an office

This “hooker-happy ex-governor,” as he’s been dubbed by the press, may actually have the audacity to consider running for elected office again, after his shameful resignation from his post as New York governor in March 2008.

Spitzer has always possessed a profound arrogance. Honestly - where does his excessive over-confidence come from? He has been heard bragging his poll numbers as governor were substantially better than current NY governor David Paterson. But Paterson’s time in office, thus far, has hardly proffered any results worthy of meaningful comparison.

Neil Cavuto had some fun with this rumor, along with his four-member guest panel, on FOX Business News.

38 Pitches » What I believe..

Curt Schilling to run for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat?  Looks like he is taking the possibility very seriously.

A run for the Senate is a massive undertaking, both personally and financially. I’m not even close to a Rhodes Scholar or Ivy League graduate, but I also know I’m watching many people with those exact credentials run this state, and this country, into the ground. You don’t need either to serve the people of the commonwealth, what you need is an unbridled and unattached passion to change peoples lives for the better. You need to not be beholden to all of those groups that offer the ‘we pay now, you pay later’ handout.

I have no idea if I’ll even do this, but if by some slim chance I do it won’t be a joke, and it won’t be for laughs. These are deadly serious times at home and abroad and this country absolutely has to elect public servants who don’t head to Washington with an “Out of sight out of mind” approach to us living back home.

When you think of icons in Boston, Curt Schilling has to be near the top of a lot of lists. Everyone in Boston remembers the bloody sock and what Schilling did that season as Red Sox fans finally had something to celebrate. I’m sure there were plenty of signs around Boston after that season that read, “Schilling for President” or something to that effect. Were there any “Schilling for Senate” signs? Doubtful. Nonetheless, late last week it was reported that Curt Schilling has thought about running for the Senate seat vacated by the recently departed Ted Kennedy. In a state of political giants, I have a hard time believing that the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would elect a retired pitcher to the United States Senate. But, stranger things have happened. We have a Governor/Terminator hybrid in California, we had a retired wrestler elected Governor in Minnesota (we won’t even get into how  that ever happened), and not so surprisingly we have Al Franken elected to the Senate from the very same state. Which leads me to ask what the hell is going on in Minnesota? But that’s not what this is about.

When I first started thinking about writing this, I was going to go on and on about how this kind of thing needs to stop. About how professional athletes and other figures like that need to stop running for office, because they win (and that’s not necessarily a good thing). But as I thought more and more about it, I decided that it is a good thing. If the people of California, or Minnesota, or Massachusetts decide that these are the people they want representing them, then it’s a great statement about democracy. I mean, a lot of politicians are like rock stars themselves, so what’s the difference? Of course there’s a difference, but if the people decide they like Curt Schilling better than Martha Coakley, Joe Kennedy, Vicki Kennedy and the other handful of people running for the seat, then why shouldn’t I be okay with it? I thought it was ridiculous at first that Curt Schilling would run for this seat, the seat of this political giant, I thought it was disrespectful. But now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’ve realized that while Ted Kennedy did great things for this country and was a great public servant, it’s time to move on. It’s not his seat anymore and whoever wants to seek it should. Just look at the current holder of Barack Obama’s former Senate seat to understand that.

Are the people of Massachusetts really crazy enough to elect Curt Schilling to the United States Senate? Yes. As a Cubs fan I can relate to Red Sox fans, and if the Cubs had won the World Series in 2003, and Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Sammy Sosa or even Moises Alou had run for public office afterward, we would’ve elected them. Only time will tell what the future holds for the former Red Sox hurler, but if he does get elected I hope it’s because of where he stands on the issues and not because of a bloody sock and a bunch of crazy Red Sox fans.

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling indicated on his blog yesterday that he was considering running for the Senate seat from Massachusetts formerly held by the late Edward Kennedy.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Schilling, an at-times outspoken conservative who campaigned for both George W. Bush and Senator John McCain in recent presidential elections, wrote on his blog that “I do have some interest in the possibility,” while also saying that his family and his video game company, 38 Studios, were priorities.

“To get to there from where I am today, many many things would have to align themselves for that to truly happen,” added Mr. Schilling, who won his first World Series with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001. “I am not going to comment further on the matter since at this point it would be speculation on top of speculation.”

Earlier in the day, New England Cable News had asked Mr. Schilling, 42, if he would consider running. “As of today, probably not,” he replied, adding that making a Senate bid was “a pretty big deal from a commitment standpoint” and that he would have to make a decision soon.

100 Stück.

€ 90,- inkl. Gratisversand.

Bild: CadyLy

Banknotentausch von 10.Juli bis 30 September 2009: Wer noch alte, österreichische Schilling-Banknoten bei sich zu Hause aufbewahrt hat – sei es aus Traditionsbewusstsein Vergesslichkeit oder welchen Grünen auch immer, hat ab sofort wieder die Chance, den guten alten Schilling in gegenwärtig gültige Werte zu transformieren.

An heißen Tagen lieber ein großes Eis oder kühles Getränk im Schanigarten als eine Banknote, die zwar lt. Nationalbank ihren Wert nie verliert, jedoch meist nur unter schwierigen Bedingungen eingetauscht werden kann.

Sinn des Eurobusses ist es, bei den 67 Stationen, die dieser in ganz Österreich macht, die alten Scheine ohne Wechselgebühr in Euro zu tauschen.

Der Bus ist heuer bereist zum 8. Mal auf Tour. Noch immer liegen neun Milliarden Schilling in vergessenen oder bisher unentdeckten, vor langer Zeit gut ausgedachten Verstecken! Lt. Nationalbank ist jeder Österreich im Schnitt somit um rund 1.000,- Schilling, also rund 70,- Euro reicher!

Macht Euch auf die Suche und versäumt nicht die guten Gelegenheiten, das Geld in Euro zu tauschen! Abbildungen der alten Währung für die Enkelkinder werden noch lange im www zu bewundern sein…

–

Verfasst von Thomas

Pitchers’ Duel

by Colin Fleming

DICK BERARDINO HAS seen many pitchers come and go during his four decades with the Boston Red Sox, but few more memorably than Curt Schilling or Roger “The Rocket” Clemens. Berardino managed a raw, 20-year-old Schilling with the Class A Greensboro Hornets, a Red Sox farm team, in 1987, before Schilling was traded to the Baltimore Orioles the following year. A couple years later, as the Red Sox bullpen coach, Berardino got a prime view of Clemens, the team’s franchise pitcher, whom he watched closely until 1996, when the Sox declined to re-sign the Rocket, convinced that he was spent at age 34.

Clemens, of course, would go on to win four Cy Young awards after that, and help the Yankees win the World Series in 1999 and 2000. In 2004, a 37-year-old Schilling would return to the Red Sox and help soften bad memories of Clemens’s departure, delivering the team a World Series of its own, after 86 years in the wilderness, as Berardino, then 68, looked on.

Schilling announced his retirement this spring, and as the Hall of Fame prepares to induct its newest class, many observers are already looking ahead to 2013, when both he and Clemens will be on the ballot for the first time. Statistically, there is no comparison between the two. While both were right-handed power pitchers, strikeout kings who could handle heavy workloads year after year, Clemens won 354 games over his career, racking up a shelf-buckling seven Cy Youngs in the process; by the numbers, he was arguably the best pitcher of all time. Schilling’s 216 wins, like most of his career statistics, are very good; still, by the numerology that has traditionally governed Hall of Fame voting, he is at best a marginal prospect.

But baseball numbers no longer inspire the same faith that they used to. Clemens’s went out the window in the wake of credible allegations about his steroid use—believed to have begun after the Red Sox left him for dead. “Roger had this Texas mentality,” Berardino told me from his home in Waltham, Massachusetts. “More is better, bigger is better. I didn’t think he needed to work out like he did. After he went to the bullpen to warm up, it was like he had just pitched nine innings. ‘More is better. You gotta do what you gotta do.’ That was him.”

Schilling, when Berardino first met him, had a different outlook. “I knew Schilling was a gamer,” he told me. But “he was young, a little immature, high-maintenance. I pushed him a lot and I was hard on him. I know he didn’t like me a lot.” Clemens famously dressed down Schilling in 1991 during a chance weight-room encounter, telling the younger pitcher that he’d never amount to anything if he didn’t change his work habits. Schilling, who idolized Clemens at the time, counts the conversation as a turning point in his career.

“As he got older, [Schilling] became more and more a student of the game,” Berardino explained. He paid his dues in the weight room, but it was his mental preparation—meticulously charting opposing hitters, watching for tendencies he could exploit on the mound—that distinguished him. The “bloody sock” game, in which Schilling threw 99 pitches off a badly injured right ankle—beating the Yankees 4–2 and continuing the Red Sox’ improbable march to the 2004 World Series—was as much a testament to concentration and craft as it was a physical marvel.

“Everything is looked at differently now,” Berardino told me. As steroids have devalued statistical comparisons as measures of greatness, what remains is something more organic and impressionistic. If Schilling makes the Hall, it will be on the back of his particular iconography, something Clemens’s career largely lacked—the bloody sock; an electrifying pitching performance in the deciding game of the 2001 World Series that lifted the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks over Clemens’s mighty Yankees; and an overall knack for postseason brilliance, for coming up big, again and again, in the biggest of games. Even Schilling’s body, thin-legged and pot-bellied, might be an asset of sorts in an era where heaped muscle is viewed with suspicion.

In 2007, when the charges against Clemens came out, Schilling publicly demanded that his erstwhile hero forfeit his last four Cy Youngs, and that baseball erase his 162 post–Red Sox wins, if Clemens couldn’t clear his name. Will Hall of Fame voters be of the same mind? “I wouldn’t be surprised if Schilling gets in and Clemens doesn’t,” Berardino told me. “But I hope it’s not true with Clemens, all the steroid talk. Because there was no need. He was a Hall of Famer, in my book, a long time ago.”

View of Fenway Park from The Bleacher Bar (copyright Delia Cabe June 2009)

These wines would be gimmicky if it weren’t for the fact that a portion of the sales goes to a Red Sox player’s favorite charity: Pitching in for Kids, Curt’s Pitch for ALS, David Ortiz Children’s Fund and Youk’s Kids. The names are a bit of a stretch, but the wine tastes fine–though more of double than a home run.

Charity Wines raised more than $350,000 for three Red Sox charities in the first three months after the wine debuted in 2007. Last year, two more wines were introduced. The company offered five wines in all, but no longer produces them. But you can still find them at some New England retailers. (Check Charity Wines for a retailer.)

Here’s the lineup:

Charity Wines also sells wines that feature MLB players from Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and, er, New York, as well as ones with football and hockey players.

Of course, no post about the Red Sox would be complete without a trip down memory lane for the Fenway Faithful:

Ende des Jahres 1968 kam ich, in einem kleinen Ort im Mühlviertel, in ein Geschäft. Eine gebückte alte Dame bediente mich. Eine typische Greislerei! Man bekam wirklich Alles. Beginnend von Lebensmitteln, über Nägel bis zur Kleidung. Eine stilvolle alte Einrichtung zeichneten die Qualität aus. Sauberkeit war ein Gebot. Die alte Dame war äusserst höflich und zuvorkommend. Gut gekleidet und mit streng zurückgekämmten Haaren, eine Brille saß auf der Nasenspitze, verarbeite, aber gepflegte Hände griffen rasch zu den gewünschten Sachen. Meine Wünsche waren bescheiden, leider hatte ich überhaupt kein Kleingeld und meine letzten 1.000.—Schillinge waren im Ganzen. Ich wollte schon zur Bank gehen um zu wechseln, aber die liebe alte Dame kam mir zuvor. Einen ganzen Sack mit 25.—Schillingmünzen zog sie hervor und fragte mich ob ich sie nehmen würde. Nun Geld war Geld und so tauschte ich das Papier gegen damals noch gültige Silbermünzen. 35 Silbermünzen waren nun mein Eigen, erstanden um 25.—Schillinge pro Münze. Zurück in Linz konnte ich es natürlich nicht lassen mich bei einem Münzhändler zu erkundigen was der Liebhaberwert sei, denn als Zahlungsmittel waren es eben 25.—Schilling. Aber siehe da er bot mir für diese 35 Stück über 15.000.—Schillinge. Ich wechselte 2 Stück um wenigstens das Ende des Monates noch zu überleben und meine Familie durchzubringen, den Rest habe ich noch immer und jedes Mal wenn ich sie betrachte fällt mir die liebe alte Dame ein. Ich wollte sie noch einmal besuchen, aber es gab weder das kleine saubere Geschäft noch sie mehr.

Wie sich die Zeiten geändert haben, wo bleib die Güte und Aufmerksamkeit gegen die Mitmenschen, wer bereitet heute noch gerne dem Anderen Freude?

haben wir doch immer wieder was zu lachen.

Die FPÖ hat es jetzt doch tatsächlich geschafft, eine Lektüre unters Volk zu bringen, welche an das intellektuelle Niveau ihrer Wähler angepasst ist.
Ja! einen COMIC!!!

Dieses erlesene Stück delikater Nazischeiße hört auf den Titel “Der blaue Planet” und handelt um Österreich als einzelnen Planet bedroht vom bösen Zentralplaneten, der EU.

Dieser will unseren Wohlstand rauben, unser Wasser, unsere Rechte und Kultur eleminieren und über uns herschen.

Doch Gott sei Dank hat unser blaue Planet Strache als Führer (der erst vor kurzem wieder für Spaß gesorgt hat, weil er gegen den EU-Beitritt von Türkei und Israel ist)!

Dieser verteidigt unsere nationalen Interessen mit seinen Freunden, einem blauen Fuchs..

..und einer geilen Nazipunkfee:

Diese Freunde sitzen bei Lagerfeuer, Bier und Würstel zusammen und singen Lieder wie “JO SCHON IN EIN PAAR JAHR, DA WIRD ALLES WAHR, WAS ICH EUCH BRÜDER JETZT ERZÄHL! DIE FREUNDE VOM RADIKAL-ISLAM, HAMAS UND TALIBAN SIND DANN BEI UNS DAHAM!”

Strache bestellt auch drei Bier (Hoppala, wie kommt denn das rechte Foto hier her?)

und HA! in dieser Idylle gibt es welche Währung? … Jahaa, den Schilling!

Im Verlauf der Geschichte reisen die Protagonisten zu einer Paralleluniversumversion des blauen Planeten, der die fürchterlichen Konsequenzen des EU-Regimes zeigt:

Dort angekommen treffen sie dann den Parallel-Strache, “Stra-CHE” dem Untergrundkämpfer.

Anschließend reisen sie noch in das Hauptquartier des Zentralplaneten, wie diese Geschichte dann weitergeht, das müsst Ihr nun schon selber herausfinden und euch durch diese geistigen Exkremente kämpfen.
Doch eines kann ich euch noch sagen, es gibt ein offenes Ende(!) und damit auch die Hoffnung auf weitere Fortsetzungen!

So, und abschließend nocheinmal die Nazipunkfee (ich weiß doch, ihr wollt es auch, man beachte bitte die harten Nippel!):

Everyone remembers the incident of Boston Red Sox and how Schilling played with a bloody sock.  It seemed that the incident repeated itself, but with New Jersey Devils, Martin Brodeur.  He overcame a bloody ankle and made 44 saves during the quarterfinal game in the verge of attempting to eliminate the Carolina Hurricanes from the playoffs.  Most importantly, Brodeur attempted to make history again.   Even with a first period cut, he tied Patrick Roy in career playoff NHL shutouts at 23.

So how did he get that bloody ankle that permeated the hockey sock?

Brodeur and his bloody ankle

Chad LaRose collided with him 20 feet in front of the net as the puck went loose.  His skate blade slashed through Brodeur’s ankle causing a four inch gash.  Like Schilling, Brodeur made history yet again but this time with the first hockey playoff  sock.

“It cut right through my sock,” Brodeur said. “It was more of a bruise. It’s not like it sliced. It just hit me. At first I wasn’t sure because I could see the blood. When you get cut by a skate, you don’t know what’s going on. I’m not that tough. I probably wouldn’t have continued if I had to take stitches.” (TSN)

Every once in a while, I like to toot my own horn.

Ready?

Ahem…

Ah, nevermind.

But I was nine months ahead of the discussion of Curt Schilling’s Hall of Fame worthiness.

I wrote this back in June of 2008, and I don’t think my mind’s changed any.

When I first heard that Curt Schilling retired I was glad to hear it.  I am not a fan of Curt Schilling, and this is not just because of his track record in the playoffs against the Yanks.  I think he’s a jackass and most of the time I wish he’d shut up.  Unfortunately, he has not retired from running his mouth, so I’m sure we will hear plenty from him as he finds himself with even more time on his hands… As much as I dislike him, I did find myself begrudgingly agreeing with him when the whole A-Rod steroids scandal broke.  I always try to give credit where credit is due.

There has been lots of speculation about whether Schilling is HOF material.  Those who come down on the negative side will point to the fact that he only has 216 wins.  However, he does have a lifetime 3.46 ERA, which is not too shabby (though he did spend most of his career in the DHless National League).  I think his ERA is even under 3 for playoffs, but don’t quote me on that.  He has 3 World Series Championships (I cringe as I write that) which of course will count for something.  In the end, he has been a dominating pitcher for a good chunk of his 20 years and I would expect he will make it to the HOF and probably rightfully so.

I think what will be most interesting is to see how Schilling is compared to Mike Mussina.  I think Mussina is also HOF bound, despite falling short of 300 wins…besides, he spent his whole career in the AL East, that has to count for something right?  Here is a brief comparison of the two pitchers:

Schilling: W 216 L 146 ERA 3.46 SHO 20 BB 711 K 3116

Mussina: W 270 L 153 ERA 3.68 SHO 23 BB 785 K 2813

Mussina clearly has the edge in wins, despite pitching 18 years versus Schilling’s 20.  Schilling has the edge in ERA, BB and K, but in the end, I think they both have a good case for Cooperstown.

Peter Abraham from the LoHud Yankees Blog had interesting thoughts on Schilling, which I enjoyed:

Curt Schilling is a Hall of Fame phony. His performance in front of Congress was one of the all-time fold jobs when he backtracked on his steroid claims. But I’ll miss him. Schilling wrapped his arms around the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry like few others. In a day when most players say it’s just another game, he never did. Plus he was easy to hate and a good villain always makes any story better.

A good villian does make any story good, but I don’t doubt there will be a new one donning the Red Sox uni soon, if there isn’t one already…

On this Wheelhouse, Bower and “The Sweet Nasty” Chris Cause are STUNNED by the news of Red Sox Ace “CURT SCHILLING’S retirement…because they thought he was already! The news leads them to a new game: “RETIRED OR NOT”; they reveal the winner between the HOUSTON ASTROS and the ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS in the “FUGLIEST UNIFORM IN SPORTS…EVAR” Tournament and then to TWEET, TWITTER OR TWAT? Which names from the world of sports are taking the time to post at TWITTER for you, and why…OH – and Bower TWATS during the show!

Download it HERE!

Curt in his party shirt

Curt Schilling has retired. The announcement was made earlier today through his blog, 38 pitches.  If you’re going to retire you might as well get some ad revenue from Budweiser, right?

The debate about his Hall of Fame credentials has been going on since the announcement was made, with some saying that three championships and his postseason statistics are enough to warrant an induction, while others argue his career as a whole isn’t impressive enough.

I think those who don’t believe he should be in the Hall of Fame are “haters” as they say.

I’m not a fan of Curt Schilling.  I think he complains too much and enjoys hearing himself speak (although I do agree with his stance on Barry Bonds and the like).  But the man is a Hall of Famer.

Anyone who can fit in a shot at The Fridge in his retirement address deserves a spot in Cooperstown.

To say I’ve been blessed would be like calling Refrigerator Perry “a bit overweight.” The things I was allowed to experience, the people I was able to call friends, teammates, mentors, coaches and opponents, the travel, all of it, are far more than anything I ever thought possible in my lifetime.

As far as his actual baseball statistics, I think this kid (user name: sausagemaker33) sums it up best…

11-2 postseason record… Check.

Bloody sock… Check.

Being one of your favorite pitchers… Check.