Curt Schilling Talks Retirement and April Fools’ Day Jokes That Involve His Son and the Yankees
April 3, 2009 – 11:18 am by Will Brinson
Curt Schilling recently retired from Major League Baseball. He hasn’t, however, retired from being a total bag of gas/wind/whatever. And, naturally, he’s going to keep talking, be it on his blog or Twitter or the radio.
For instance, he recently had a conversation with WEEI (who hosts his blog, awkwardly) and the Dennis & Callahan Morning Show. He chatted about a number of things, including retirement, going out on top as a WINNER, getting into the Hall of Fame and what kind of April Fools’ Day jokes the son of Curt Schilling can try and pull off (which is especially entertaining). Say what you will about Schilling (and I will say that he’s a touch mouthy for my tastes) but the guy’s a good interview.
On April Fools’ Day:
“So my 6-year old son gets on the bus and drops “Guess what. My dad is coming back and playing for the Yankees next year…April Fools!” I was so proud and so terrified at the thought that he could get himself beat up for that.”
On retiring:
“At the end of the day, I’m probably going to end up being one of the few people who retired from a profession that had absolutely nothing to do with the decision to retire. I retired because there is other stuff that I want to do and experience in life and the ability to play baseball was not the issue or not even a factor in the decision.”
On going out a winner in his final appearance, Game 2 of the World Series against Colorado:
“The only thing that pisses me off is the last hitter I faced, I walked. Helton.”
Schilling on the Hall of Fame and the full interview after the jump.
On the Hall of Fame:
“I’m not going to lie and say “I don’t pay attention.” I saw it. The things that I read, they were nice and flattering and all those things. At the end of the day, I’ll go back to the championship trio of Williams, Anderson and Daulton. I probably don’t have any harsher critics but all three of them said the same thing: if we had a game to win, I wanted him to have the ball…I want to leave the game and have the 25 guys that I played with every year pick me if they had to win one game, life or death, and I want the 25 guys I competed with to not want me on the mound in that same game. That’s something you have to achieve or earn. You kind of had to etch your way into their memories. I feel comfortable that I did my best work when the chips were stacked the highest and the games mattered the most. As it relates to the Hall of Fame…I can’t control it. I’m not going to throw another pitch for the rest of my life. I’m not going to get any better or any worse between now and the day people vote for me…I wanted to play big league baseball. Twenty-three years ago that’s what I wanted to do. I never even contemplated the words “Hall of Fame” being associated with something I did with baseball skills. To have that happen, that’s cool.”
On what he’ll miss the most:
“I’m not [missing anything yet]. I certainly miss being able to BS with guys on a daily basis. The last year of my career, being exposed to the whole Manny thing and going through the injury thing that I was going through, going through the clubhouse was such a bad experience for me and so unfun that I think it helped me walk away maybe sooner than I might have.”
Listen to Curt Schilling on WEEI in Boston with Dennis and Callahan
Tags: Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, Todd Helton
