homegame

Is He On a Strict Thought Count?

Read Curt Schilling's blog for the first time last night. Like just about everything else Schilling does, it was entertaining, highly interesting, and shaded with a pleasant touch of absurdity.

Schilling's entrance into cyberspace has drawn some ridicule from paid journalists. This is unwise. If the Red Sox pitcher answered no questions and kept all his thoughts for his own work, as Albert Belle used to do, he'd deserve a ripping. That is, of course, hardly the case. Perhaps I'm a little old school for my former trade, but I was taught that the more information made available to the general public, the better off we all were.

Naturally, Schilling's audience is curious if he'll ever go whole hog and post in between innings of a start. Probably not, if only because his teammates would be fighting for position to peer at his laptop over Curt's shoulders. But it brings up the following historical point. IF any ballplayer does so, it won't be the most dramatic idea ever proposed for interactive baseball media.

In Bill Veeck's autobiography "Veeck As In Wreck," one of the books every sports fan should own, Veeck revealed that while owner of the St. Louis Browns, he made a proposition to ex-player turned broadcaster Buddy Blattner. Blatter would sign a one-day contract, then call the game while playing in it-including his at-bats.

Unfortunately for baseball history, Blattner wanted too much dough for the stunt. There's a lot more money in the game now. Maybe some owner could make the same pitch to, who else?, Joe Morgan.

posted by Michael Gee @ 9:58 AM