Millar, Francona, and Schilling in Stereo

The Kevin Millar Backtrack Backroad Tour on FSN NEST with Greg Dickerson, on NESN post game, and here on WEEI with Dale & Neumy 8.12.04: "The big thing was it wasn't about Francona (his outburst about Francona's lineup), I just basically you know I apologized to him because it shouldn't have got to the media, I got caught with my pants down for a couple of minutes but you know I was frustrated. And sometimes, you know what, it's good for a team, you know I'm not stupid. I wouldn't have gone to the media the way I did but there's also some stuff that we need a little spark and uh you know I mean Francona's been unbelievable and he's our commander and I'd never challenge him and I felt bad for the... it looked as if I was challenging Terry Francona and that wasn't it at all, it was just "hey, let's get something rollin' here, and let's get this team going, and sometimes someone's got to step on a landmine, and that was me...

He's been unbelievable, Terry Francona has like I said earlier in the year, he had more confidence in me than I did. You run through those times. And this guy stood behind me, he's the last guy that I'd ever try to hurt, and that's where I felt terrible the next day, because it came out that way, obviously, then you've got all the opinions on the radio shows and the papers, and the true story was, that wasn't the case. I was just frustrated, I checked the lineup. I expected to play that day because I was told one thing, but hey, that happens. I should have just walked away like I said and went down in the dugout, but you know those things happen, you make a mistake, it came out that way, and obviously Francona and I looked like we were in a little spat, but I came in that next day and apologized, we had a great conversation, and everything was great, we cleared it up, and let's get on a roll now."... on FSN NEST: "I'm gonna pop off (this week), I'll talk to John (Henry), I'll give him a call, we'll have some coffee :-)"

8.12.04: Curt Schilling on WROR with Loren, Wally, and Sue.

Loren or Wally: ...you're over it now... (Monday's loss)...

Curt Schilling: You know it's... you wear 'em. I carry those with me a lot longer than I carry the wins. Oh absolutely.

Loren or Wally: Did you know, when you were warming up, that some-in (sic) wasn't clickin' for you?

CS: I didn't feel as sharp as I did the game before but I've won with a lot worse stuff.

Loren or Wally: Yeah we were talking Curt, Loren and I were talking off the air, and on the air, but how do you know, I mean are there times when you're warming up and you're saying to yourself, somethin's not clickin' today?

CS: Yeah, but I'm at a point now where unless I'm just lights out in the bullpen, I don't really care. Bullpen's to get warm. Once I get from the bullpen to the bench, I tend to just absolutely elimate how I felt because once I step on the mound the adrenaline level, the intensity, everything changes. And I've gone out in the bullpen and just been horrible, step on the mound and been lights out. And I've gone out on the mound, and in the bullpen had been unbelievable, walk on the mound and just get my ass handed to me."

Loren or Wally: Tell me about this, you walk up and you step up on the mound and you step on the rubber and it's time for the first pitch, is there like 'DUUuhhhhrrrr' this volt, this jolt of electricity that comes in...

CS: Oh yeah, once it starts counting, there's a different level, you can't replicate something you can't practice.

Loren or Wally: (Reversing Ted William's hitting theory) Do you try to figure out what the hitter thinks you're going to throw to him?

CS: Some, very few. I spend so much time going over video of mine, preparing for guys, when I step on the mound I have a plan to get each hitter out three to four times a night, and for some guys, I have a four, six, eight pitch sequence I want to use (LoW: "wow")... for other guys, I react to their reactions. But I don't ever walk into a game and not have an idea of exactly how I want to pitch a guy three or four times, and there are certain hitters that I know, it's actually the reason I got into video was Tony Gwynn, was the best hitter in the game at the time, and he talked about watching video knowing what a guy was going to throw in certain counts and I go out and face him and think "my God, I got nothin' to get this out" he knows everything I have, he knows everything I'm going to do, and I thought what a huge edge that gives him, to a lot of different guys so I figured I wanted to give myself that same edge."

Usually we have a pitcher's meeting at the beginning of a series with the catchers and everybody talks about the offense, and on day's I pitch, I'll have a meeting a couple of hours before the game and go over each hitter, how I want to pitch him, for all four at-bats, how I want the defense to be lined up, (LoW: "WOW. Sue: This is pretty well thought out! LoW: IT IS..."), you know what, for $13 million a year I figured it's the least I could do (LoW+Sue: "HAAAAaaaaa, we just show up, we don't have a plan.")...

...My wife (Shonda) was female athlete of the year in high school, big field hockey player, played basketball... that was one of the first things we ever did on a date was play a couple games of horse... Thunderstorm In', first race he ran for me he won ($13,000). My old pitching coach Johnny Padres is huge, huge into the horses, and his son is my horse's trainer, he's been into the trotter's for a long, long time. He's going to be coming out to Rockingham on the off-day... Zim's a close friend of Johnny's, they grew up at the track together. I can remember Johnny getting out of camp and heading over to the horses and losing every single day. But it was fun, it was something, I actually bought the horse for my wife, for Mother's Day. (LoW: "you did?!? Sue; yeah hat's different") ...we're gonna get the kids to go over to the track on the day that he runs over there. The first one was out in Chicago, but we listened to it over the phone, Johnny was screamin' like a freakin' girl... it's exciting."

LoW: Let's talk about the rest of the season. LoW: I think as of this morning they're a game up. LoW: No, no it's tied. LoW; It is tied?...I want to see the Yankees come down...

CS: You know what, they played (Yanks) good enough, and we played poorly enough, that that's out of our control right now, I've felt like getting to the post-season itself is the goal here, because I think if we can get there that we have the kind of team, the kind of people, and the environment to make it a special year. Having said that, the challenge is going to be getting there. We have not played to the level that I think... definitely of our expectations, and of the hype and the pre-season expectations that were out there, almost in an unrealistic sense in some ways, we haven't gotten there, but this team has a chance to have a special year and it just... we've talked about it, and it just seems after a century's worth of misery, there's just no way it's going to be easy. I mean I don't imagine the first world championship here will be a cake walk. And this is the kind of year where fans have jumped on and off the bandwagon, we've kind of forced our hand in that sense. And this has been a team, definitely not as likeable as the team from last year. Lot of different, really stupid things happening. Stories that don't belong out there being a part of what we're doing, but we've kind of made our own bed, so it's a matter of us doing the right thing, and playing the game the way it's supposed to be played, and I'd like to have another forty games like last night. The hard part is people just don't understand, it's not like, and I don't mean this in a demeaning way in any way, but it's not like a normal job. First off it's not a game. I've never seen people get paid $13 million to play Monopoly. Monopoly's a game. It's a business. It's a business and it's a job. And in a lot of normal jobs, you can have a mindset "I'm going to have a better day, I'm going to work harder, I'm gonna produce more, it's gonna be a better day at work" we're competing against human beings, so you don't get what you want, it doesn't always work out the way you want it to work out because there's the human element involved and that's not normal. But people don't understand "why can't you guys just do this? or why... you know? And it's never the way, okay now you guys are gonna get on a roll because you got in a fight with the Yankees. Or you won a big game this day, now that should... it never, it doesn't work that way in our job, you can't wish things to be a certain way and have them be that way. You have to go out, you have to persevere, and you have to have a mindset of "screw it, I don't care how yesterday went, tomorrow's going to go well" (Wally's dad is Salty Brine)