The Smiths

Game 31 - Red Sox

Red Sox 9, Blue Jays 2
Record: 21-10

It's a shame we started using band names in our headlines instead of song titles, because Bigmouth Strikes Again would probably be the most appropriate headline in the history of MLC.

I don't have much time this afternoon, and that's a good thing. I'm going to keep my remarks brief, and then I'm never going to discuss this issue again.

One week after justifiably tearing into the media for ill-considered and inaccurate public statements, Curt Schilling managed to totally and irrevocably yield the high ground, and in the process demonstrated himself as less credible and less sympathetic than Jose Canseco and Barry Bonds. That's an exacta box of legendarily long odds. Schilling's unprovoked blast at Bonds may have contained completely defensible sentiment, but his command of the facts rivaled that of the Bush Administration (Hey, wait a minute. Schill's a noted Republican. The current Administration is notably Republican. Ipso facto, all Republicans have a slippery grasp of the truth. I feel like the kid at the end of PCU that found the link between Hackman and Caine.). Furthermore, Schilling's diatribe was just stupid. All it did was serve to make him a story and create churn in the already manic Boston media environment.

Schill's comments are all the more disgusting after his meek capitulation in front of Congress several years ago, when the blustery one disavowed any knowledge of widespread PED use in baseball. The lesson, shared from MLC to No. 38, is this - you're an idiot, just like us, and we'd all be better off if you remembered that when the lights go on.

As I told Gheorghe: The Blog proprietor T. Coraghessen Doyle this morning, the media's a bit culpable here, too. Yes, Schilling would be better served to keep his own counsel, but the media consistently wants to have the ability to both criticize athletes for not being open and then blast them when they are. In 5 years, all athletes will use their own blogs to communicate to the public and never speak to the mainstream media – and I can’t blame them.

My spidey sense tells me that for all his prolific public communication, Schilling's not actually one of the leaders of the Sox clubhouse. Pay attention over the next few days, and I bet you'll see Papi, Wake, Tek, and Lowell saying a whole lot of nothing about this issue - and their teammates will follow suit.

Shame that I spent this many words on this crap, because Josh Beckett was fantastic once again last night, giving up a single run (on a first-pitch homer to Alex Rios) and only needing 89 pitches to get through 7 innings. My man Dustin Pedroia hit his first big-league homer (against former Met fave Victor Zambrano), and has gone 8-for-13 over the last 4 games to raise his average to .254. Big swing keep on swinging, little guy.

No more Schill talk here. I hope he chooses to do the same.