Step it Up, or Step Aside

THE SCHILL IS GONE

"I tore this thing facing Miguel Cairo, the last out of the Yankee game during the regular season."

Curt won't start Game 5... that's it. It's not over, but he's not starting Sunday. D-Lowe will go.

10.15.04 Curt in the car on WEEI with Dale & Neumy: "...we gotta find a way to get this game tomorrow and get right back in this series.

Neumy: Curt where do you stand right now with your ankle, and your prospects about pitching again this season?

Well, you know what, beyond, I'm not pitching Sunday, and beyond that we don't know. We're gonna do everything we can between now and Sunday to try and make some adjustments, do what we can to try and get this situation stabilized, try and get back on the mound.

Neumy: Curt is this appreciably different than stuff you've been battling all summer long?

CinC: Well this is a totally unrelated as of now injury. The unfortunate part of this is almost like the Warren Commission and it's reporting, once it gets to the point now, there's just so much false information out there as far as how, why, where and when and umm I think a lot of people are taking some undue heat for some things that aren't happening, I mean the short of it is I tore this thing facing Miguel Cairo, the last out of the Yankee game during the regular season. And it popped on the first pitch thrown to him and there was some pain for, I threw five more pitches I think to finish that game, I was out of that game after that.

Dr. Morgan diagnosed it probably 30 seconds after we got done looking at it. We treated it. He told me everything that was going to happen. The training staff was freakin' phenominal in getting me out there to face Anaheim. We had some issues in the Anaheim game. I got injected in third inning in Anaheim. And it flared up again later in that game. As far as tweaking it on the play, that last play where I threw the ball away against Anaheim, it popped a couple of different times because I took a couple of different wrong steps, but that wasn't the trigger.

The most serious days were the days following that where I had an appreciable amount of swelling and a lot of tenderness a lot of discomfort. The Red Sox, Doctor Morgan, they talked to everybody they could to address the issue. The two days leading up to the game against the Yankees were by far the two best days I've had up to this point. I was going into that game incredibly confident that whatever we were dealing with, we were going to be able to overcome. And then I had problems in the bullpen. It was not actually walking down the steps in the dugout where I had the problems, I had a couple of different times in the bullpen where it was an issue, but I felt like, regardless of how I was throwing at the time, I was going to be able to do what I needed to do to make it right and that's why I took the ball. I thought for sure I was going to be able to answer the bell and unfortunately hindsight being what it is, I look back now and realize that I could not do that.

Neumy: So there was no specific issue of you tweaking it or whatever after your bullpen, en route to the mound before Game 1?

CinC: No. No. No there wasn't.

Dale: You actually pitched the entire Anaheim game with this problem though, your appearance in the Anaheim game was with this problem...

CinC: Right but Dr. Morgan injected it in the third inning because I was having some discomfort, and we were fine. And that's kind of what I assumed how yesterday was going to be, how Game 1 would be. But like I said I could not make that work.

Neumy: Curt I know as an athlete you welcome the challenge of pitching for the postseason, you accept "X" amount of responsibility. I'm wondering, do you have moments where, since then you second guessed yourself saying "would a healthy Derek Lowe, a healthy other pitcher, do a better job than a less than 100% Curt Schilling in that spot?

CinC: Well I thought I was pretty clear after the game. And when I look back on it, I mean the way we played that ballgame, I felt like that anybody but me would've won that game for us. I mean that's certainly my opinion going in. But when you look back on it I assume you guys would come to the same conclusion when you look back at what happened and how I pitched. I certainly didn't envision that being the scenario when I was walking to the dugout. I mean there's 55,000 people who were not going to shut up. The adrenalin was at an all-time high and it was an absolute perfect environment to thrive in and I couldn't do that.

Dale: Is this a pain issue Curt?

CinC: Uh... No, no. It's more of a stabilization issue and you know that one of the analogies I was trying to use was, I don't know if you guys play golf at all, but if you ever try to hit a ball under a tree, and you have to hit a shot out from under that tree, you have to adjust your swing, and you think you're going to be able to make the right swing on the ball and you take your backswing and you hit the tree in the middle of your swing? It screws you up. That's kinda what I was going through the other day and when I was coming into my set position, bringing my leg up, the ankle was popping. And as hard as I was trying to make myself get past that, I couldn't. That's the frustrating part for me is I knew that I could and I didn't.

Neumy: Is it generally the players decision to make that call or do you respect a field manager or a general manager that would come up to you and say "lookit Curt, there's too much at stake here, we can't afford to take this risk, we're gonna try somebody else in that spot?"

CinC: Well I work for them. Here's the thing. People talk long about my relationship with Terry and the fact that for some reason people think I call the shots. And regardless to whatever's been said, that's not the case. Terry has a lot of respect from me, I have a lot of respect for him, I've earned the right to be in a situation, but I don't dictate when I come out of a ballgame, I don't dictate that and I never have. I do get more leeway in the sense that there's conversations we me sometimes that he may not have with other people. When he wants me out of a game, I'm out of a game. That's just a respect thing. I've respected his decisions, I don't always agree with them. But that's not really relevant to the issue.

Dale: What has to happen for you now to be able to pitch again in Games 6 or 7 if there are games then?

CinC: That's too broad of a question for me to ans.. I don't know. We need to find something that's going to help me stabilize the ankle and stop the tendon from dislocating when I'm throwing the baseball. Tim Rowe and Chris Correnti, and Dr. Morgan and a bunch of other doctors and people around the country are sending in stuff. They're doing everything they can. I trust that they're going to find something that's going to be able to help me take the ball again.

Dale: But you're not worried about making this worse?

CinC: No. Not at all. The only concern I would have, which is my No. 1 concern, I think most people's concern is altering my mechanics to try to adjust for the issue. If I can't pitch without without altering my mechanics, then we're going to have to win a World Series without me, which is entirely possible for us to do." -- Curt Schilling with Dale and Neumy

Lucchino said Curt hurt ankle coming down dugout steps before start.
Where was Tito's Plan B? Six runs too late later? Geesh.

Step it Up

Or Step Aside

"...we put ourselves in this situation. I accept responsibility for letting Game 1 get out of hand early. There were things we could have done to stop the bleeding sooner.

Look, we've got guys here still damp from the Division Championship party, trying to figure out which t-shirt they're going to wear in Kenmore Square when we sweep the Yankees. Making new designer handshakes for different TV appearances. That's what I'm dealing with okay? You probably heard we're loose and have too cool hairdoos... Meanwhile we haven't won a championship in '86 years around here. And we've got a long way to go just to get on base in the first six innings of a baseball game. Well see what happens then. ...Is that it? You guys all set?

Oh yeah, Curt (Schilling) he has a sore lower leg, more than that I can't really say. I am not a doctor. And, as for Pedro (Martinez) I think he has a sore upper body, but again I am not a doctor, so your would have to ask someone else."-- What Would Bill Say?

Time to Show Some Guts or Go Belly Up

Sox Brush it Off Tonight