Good bye Curt Schilling, and thank you!!

[massdebater]

I have no place else to post this, so I came to my old friend Jake's playground.

Dear Mr. Schilling:

Thank you. Thank you for your bravado. Thank you for your confidence, and thank you for all you did for my hometown ball team.

The Red Sox are not just another baseball team, they are a tradition handed down from parent to child far and wide around this area. For many years that tradition was that of the lovable loser. While we accept that there are more than a few pink hats/yahoo fans around here, but there are also a lot of sincere baseball fans. Most of us acknowledge the place you have earned here in the history of a storied franchise.

Take your seat with number 9, and Yaz, even Dewey Evans marvels at your postseason stats. You stood in the doorway of a truck in the winter of 2004, and said "I am going to boston to break an 86 year old curse", and we said, "why tempt fate, like that?" turns out you were right, and we were foolish to have doubted you.

I will never forget game 6 against NY in 2004. The sock belongs in the hall of fame, and frankly so do you. I do not agree with you on football (steelers? really?) or politics, but I love to listen to you talk. You never pull any punches, and you have the courage of your convictions, always.

You were regarded around here when you first signed on, as a bit of a consolation prize. THEY got A-Rod, and we got the Schill, "he's old, but maybe hes got something left in the tank." Turns out you did. TWO world series, and the gratitude of a fawning Red Sox nation.

Thank you Mr. Schilling. Your greatness is duly noted.

[Merlot Joe]

Great career. Hall of Fame on it's way in 5 years.


Joe

[massdebater]

i agree joe...hes a decent regular season pitcher, but when the season is on the line....hes the best i ever saw. he is everythign clemens never was.

[Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III]

Just another doper . . . they all are.

[Ardbeg... innit]

Mar 24, 2009 20:42:54 GMT -6 Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III said:

Just another doper . . . they all are.

This guy was the real deal..

Tiger Hall of Famer George Kell Dies

George Kell, a Hall of Fame third baseman who outdueled Ted Williams for the 1949 American League batting title and finished his career with a batting average of .306, died Tuesday morning. He was 86.

Kell played 14 years in the American League with Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Chicago and Baltimore. He won the AL batting title in 1949 when he hit .34291 and Ted Williams hit .34276. Kell hit more than .300 nine times and was selected to play in 10 All-Star games.

After his playing days, Kell was a Detroit Tigers broadcaster from 1959 to 1996.

Kell grew up in Swifton, Ark., and lived in the same house from his birth to when it burned down in 2001, then rebuilt on the same land. He was severely injured in a car crash in December 2004, but was able to walk again with a cane about six months later.

Jackson's Funeral Home in Newport, Ark., confirmed the death. Kell played from 1943-1957 with five American League teams -- the Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles. He batted over .300 each year from 1946-53. He played for the Tigers during his batting duel with Williams, who played for the Red Sox.

Longtime Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell told WWJ-AM in Detroit on Tuesday that Kell was accomplished both on the baseball field and in the broadcast booth. The men became close friends working together in TV and on the radio.

...

George Clyde Kell, born Aug. 23, 1922, signed a pro baseball contract in 1940. During his 1,573-game career, Kell had 1,847 hits and drove in 778 runs. He hit a career-high 12 home runs with Boston in 1953.

Lou Boudreau, former major league manager, introduced Kell when he was inducted into the Arkansas Hall of Fame in 1964. "I'll put him with Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio when you need to get the run home," Boudreau said.

Kell retired after hitting .297 with Baltimore in 1957 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983 along with another Arkansas third baseman, Brooks Robinson, a teammate with the Orioles.

Kell won the 1949 batting title in dramatic fashion. Facing Bob Lemon, he went two for three on the final day of the season and Williams, who would become Kell's teammate three years later, went
hitless.

In an interview with The Associated Press the day before Detroit hosted the 2005 All-Star Game, Kell remembered what might have happened if the Tigers hadn't made the final out against Cleveland with Kell in the on-deck circle.

"Bob Feller was pitching in relief and if I would have made out, Ted would have won it," Kell said. "The manager said he wanted to send a pinch hitter in for me, but I said, 'I'm not going to sit on a stool and win the batting title.' What Feller was doing in there in relief on the last day of the season I'll never know. They should have been trying some minor league prospect in there."

The next year, when the Tigers faced Boston, Kell was shocked to see the already great Williams come over to greet him, saying, "You won the batting title, so I'm coming to your dugout." The friendship served him well when he was traded to the Red Sox two years later.

"We were already close when I went to Boston; we were primarily a young ballclub and he was an elder and I was past 30, so we hit it off real good," Kell told the AP.

Kell struck out only 13 times in 1949, the least ever for a batting champ. The next year, he had 56 doubles and drove in 101 runs with only eight home runs. No one hit as many doubles in any year since. From 1950, until Tommy Herr turned the trick in 1985, no one had driven in 100 runs without reaching double figures in home runs.

[DT]

RIP Curt Schilling, future Hall of Famer.

[DT]

Mar 24, 2009 20:42:54 GMT -6 Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III said:

Just another doper . . . they all are.

Pass the BONG BOB!!!!

[massdebater]

Mar 24, 2009 20:42:54 GMT -6 Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III said:

Just another doper . . . they all are.

you know, bobbo, ive given up worrying about the drug thing. It seems if this is truly the steroid era then you have to take what these individuals did, even clemens and bonds, and say....hey if they were ALL doing it, then those accomplishments still matter. Where it gets fuzzy is against the all time greats. im pretty sure willie mays, and mickey mantle were not using (well mantle wasnt using steroids, was using everything else).

So if schilling was using, and i am not sure that he was, then he still beat a bunch of guys who were using, and if he was clean, as i suspect he was, on the face of it then his accomplishments are even more impressive.

your ball team keeps getting better down there, bobbo, maybe some day you will get it.