Bush Pitches a Nine Hitter?

During the World Series last year, I gained enormous respect for Curt Schilling of the Red Sox. After years of watching Pedro whine every time he turned the wrong way or bruised his pinky closing a door, it was incredibly refreshing to watch a talented player continue to pitch well in the face of an injury that might impact the rest of his career. No matter that he was making more money in one outing than I’ll make in 10 years; he was tough, he pitched well. My cynical mother told me that he was doing it for the bonus he would receive on top of his regular salary, but a bit more money on top of a ton of money isn’t that noticeable. When you’re making that much money a year, what’s another few hundred thousand dollars. I thought he was doing it because he loved baseball, because he wanted to be part of an historic team.

Then, on November 1, shortly after the Red Sox won the series, Schilling went on stage with George Bush in Wilmington, Ohio and gave him a ringing political endorsement. Obviously, if Tim Wakefield had showed up at a John Kerry rally and encouraged the public to get out and vote for Kerry, I wouldn’t have had the same seething antipathy that I’ve had towards Schilling ever since that appearance. Or would I? We’ve become accustomed to seeing Hollywood’s finest at political rallies for years, and that’s become sort of humdrum. But the Red Sox players had taken on super hero qualities over the course of the playoffs and the World Series, so Schilling’s move was tantamount to Batman coming out publicly in favour of Commissioner Gordon, waving from election posters, arm in arm. It felt wrong. It would have felt wrong even if he had done it for Kerry instead. Baseball and politics should be as separate as church and state. Oops.

On Monday, Schilling pitched predictably poorly against the league-leading Chicago White Sox. The crowd cheered him with his oddly dyed hair as he walked out to the pitchers' mound, and they gave him a standing ovation when he was taken out in the 7th inning. All around me I heard fans who had gone to the bathroom or to get another beer return to their seats saying, “Why is he still in the ballgame?” And then there they were cheering wildly for him as he left the mound. Were they all Republicans? Did they forget that for the last 2 1/3 innings he couldn’t get the ball over the plate? After the (deserved) reputation Boston fans have for being incredibly harsh towards players, I was shocked at their idolatry. Schilling doesn’t have it any more, and politically, he is naïve, so he brings little to the plate, if you will. Maybe we can sign Batman for the starting rotation.