remindmeofthe | (no subject)

I found this delightful little gem today courtesy of Cursed to First:

Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Chris Duffy suffered a mild concussion Saturday after being hit in the head by a pitch from Boston right-hander Curt Schilling in the fourth inning.

Beth's entry on the subject has this to say:

Clearly Schilling is throwing at people on purpose--he has said as much repeatedly. After pasting the kid upside the head, he did suffer controlwise in the next few innings, but I don't really think the two are related. That pitch to Duffy was obviously deliberate.

Beth's take on this pitch is the only thing I have to go on, because you know what?

That is the only place I have seen this discussed.

And that bothers me. Not as much as Schilling apparently hanging out with Runelvys Hernandez over the offseason, and believe me I'll get to that, but it bothers me. Curt Schilling deliberately nails some poor rookie in the head and no one has anything to say about it? This is not news? Why not?

Last July, there was a brawl between the Tigers and the Royals. It was a most excellent brawl, complete with an angry starting pitcher needing five guys to hold him back and an enthusiastic piledriving, but here's how it started:

Runelvys Hernandez threw a purpose pitch at Carlos Guillen's head. Guillen came out of the game with a concussion. What is not well-known beyond the Tigers fanbase is that during the brawl, Guillen was so dazed that he did not know what was happening, and for weeks after, he suffered severe headaches. Last I heard, he didn't remember the incident, and I see no reason why that would have changed.

We don't know yet, obviously, what long-term effect this hit will have on Duffy. I hope he'll be fine. But if Schilling hit him on purpose, then tell me, please: What makes him any different from Hernandez? The willingness to put another man's well-being on the line, the ready disrespect for the game, the batter, his team, your team, your job - that is what it is to throw at someone's head. Hernandez did it, and now Schilling has done it.

I have to draw the line here. The mentality of "yeah, but it was my guy who did it" cannot apply here for me. He hurt that kid. I'll never see him the same again.

So how is this not news?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I didn't hear anything about it either. Did the Pirates throw at anyone in response? I feel like I would have heard some bitching about it if they had, and I didn't. I'm not really up on the culture of the Pirates, but if they didn't throw at anyone in response, doesn't that suggest they didn't see Schilling's hitting the guy right in the dome as intentional?

Hmm, though trust Schilling to have apparently made some stupid ass postgame comments (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060312&content_id=1346239&vkey=spt2006news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb).

"If you are going to start establishing the inside pitch this late in your career ... you've got to have a little more control," said Duffy.

Burn!

I officially love Chris Duffy. ♥

I've always thought little of Schilling. This doesn't change it. :P I am quite happy to put Schilling in the same boat as Run Elvis Run Hernandez.

I'm just going to say for the record, there's a right way and a wrong way to pitching inside. If you're gonna do up a purpose pitch, DO NOT AIM FOR THE FUCKING HEAD! Try like the ribs, ass, thigh, shoulder, etc. Just not the head, beacuse, as Pudge Rodriguez once said "in the head, is the brain"

Schilling's an ass, but he's our ass. I just don't want him to pull crap like this again. I mean pitch inside by all means, but just stay away from the head area, okay? Though he did seem a little rattled after he hit him in the head. I mean when Pedro brushed off Jeter and Soriano at the plate in 03, he didn't hit their heads...he got them in the hands, and it was the right way to do it.

Besides I had heard shades of Roger Clemens' comment "HE SHOULD'VE GOTTEN OUT OF THE WAY" from the day after the 4th of July game in 03 in which he hit Millar in the hand(nearly the head actually) and Millar was pretty badly bruised up. Next pitch though, Trot Nixon administered justice. But still, I mean it's fine to knock them off the plate, but just watch where you're putting that ball.

I think my drunkenness has worn off....

I was pretty pissed at Schilling, mostly for his "It's HIS fault! He should have gotten out of the way!" comments. That's just all-around jackassitude. Schill has always rubbed me the wrong way and I've always had a little seed of dislike for him, but this just takes it to another level.

I'm wondering if this isn't bigger news because March Madness is completely owning every sports outlet.

Good points all 'round, especially for those of us who have the quality Tigers fan lookout on the situation as well as the Red Sox fandom. Speakin' for myself, I know the only reason I didn't post about it was because I hadn't seen it, being in Michigan, and just saw a note on Rotoworld saying Duffy had been concussed by Schilling. I assumed it was an accident, it's ST, he just had a ball slip badly.

I completely missed his comments about intentionally throwing inside until Beth linked them, at which point I figured, hey, the master's already covered it, let me go back to finding excuses for linking photos of Brandon Inge groping his manbits.

That said, I'm not sure why it hasn't been bigger news in the Boston area, i.e. among people who were more likely to have seen it and hear the comments afterwards. I wonder if it didn't look as bad/intentional as all that in real life and that's why the response has been slow? Hrm. I dunno. I've never been nearly as big a Schilling fan as Beth has been (his Republicanism and mini-Aryan-nation-esque family frighten me), so this isn't exactly cognitive dissonance or anything. I actually have more trouble with Pudge being an asshole than I do with Schilling.

Yay long comment.

--Sam

Oh wait. If you want to be even MORE disturbed by whatever the hell Schill thinks he's doing this spring, have a read at Wallball Single (http://redsox.mostvaluablenetwork.com/brians-tao-of-manny/can-skippy-handle-the-split/). He's been plunking college kids in the head too.