Schilling of Red Sox retires with 'zero regrets'
BY HOWARD ULMAN
AP SPORTS WRITER
Curt Schilling retired from
baseball Monday, ending a career
in which he won World Series
titles with the Boston Red Sox and
Arizona Diamondbacks and was
one of the game's most dominant
pitchers and grittiest competitors.
The 42-year-old right-hander
said on his blog he's leaving after
23 years with "zero regets."
Schilling missed all of last season
with a shoulder injury after signing
a one-year, $8 million contract.
"The things I was allowed to
experience, the people I was
able to call friends, teammates,
mentors, coaches and opponents,
the travel, all of it, are far more than
anything I ever thought possible
in my lifetime," he wrote.
Schilling had surgery last June
and had said he might come
back in the middle of this season
though he was not under contract.
He made no reference to his injury
on his blog.
He was co-MVP of the 2001
World Series with Randy Johnson
while in Arizona. Schilling also
won World Series titles with
Boston in 2004 and 2007.
"Curt had a great career and
made a profound impact on the
Red Sox, helping to restore the
Red Sox' status as a championship
organization," general manager
Steelers
By BARRY WILNER
AP FOOTBALL WRITER
The Steelers get their opening
night showcase as Super Bowl
champions. The oldest rivalry in
football has a first-week renewal
in prime time. An old AFL-style
doubleheader closes out the
weekend.
That's how the NFL will begin
the 2009 season, starting with
as juicy a matchup as possible:
Pittsburgh hosting the Tennessee
Titans, who merely had the
league's best record in 2008 and
who beat the Steelers 31-14 at
Heinz Field in the 15th game of
the season.
Opening kickoff is Thursday
night, Sept. 10 on NBC, which
also gets the 178th meeting
between the Bears and Packers,
in Green Bay on Sunday night,
Sept. 13.
For those surprised that the
Cowboys, who open their palatial
new stadium this season, are not
Theo Epstein said in an e-mail to
The Associated Press. "He was
consistently dominant, and never
more so than when it mattered
most. Not only for what he did
but for when and how he did
it Curt deserves
to be remembered
with the all-time
greats"
Schilling came
to Boston for the
2004 season and
helped the team
win its first World
Series in 86 years,
pitching Game 2
of a sweep of the
St. Louis Cardinals
after a surgical
procedure to suture
a loose tendon in
his right ankle and
with blood seeping
through his sock.
The sock is now in
the Baseball Hall of
Fame.
He was drafted by
the Red Sox in the
second round in
1986 but was traded
to the Baltimore Orioles before
playing for the big league club. He
pitched for Baltimore, Houston,
Philadelphia and Arizona before
being wooed to the Red Sox by
Epstein.
Schilling, one of the sport's hard
to open season against Titans
featured in a night game in Week
1, well, baseball got in the way. So
Dallas, the NFL's biggest TV draw,
which is moving to Arlington,
Texas, near the Rangers' ballpark
the Rangers are home that
weekend will have to wait
until the second week, when the
Cowboys are expected to host the
Sunday fighter.
"We have the chance to get on
the national game the second
weekend with not being able
to get on the first weekend,"
Cowboys vice president Stephen
Jones said Monday at the owners
meetings. "We're having to work
with the league on some things."
The Cowboys and Lions
get to keep their traditional
Thanksgiving hosting slots.
The Lions go back to meeting
the Packers that day, a matchup
that occurred every year from
1951-63 and will happen for the
19th time. The Raiders will be at
the Cowboys following that, and
the NFL Network night game will
throwers, finishes his career with
3;116 strikeouts, 14th most in
baseball history, a 216-146 record
and a 3.46 ERA.
He was even better in the
postseason, with an 11-2 record,
the best of any pitcher with at
least 10 decisions, and 2.23 ERA
in 19 career starts.
"The game always gave me far
more than I ever gave it," Schilling
wrote on his blog. "All of those
things, every single one of those
feature the New York Giants at
Denver
"The Thanksgiving game is a
tradition and we're proud to have
it and to continue it in the new
stadium," Jones said. "It's very
important to us."
Commissioner Roger Goodell
acknowledged there continues to
be discussions about rotating the
Thanksgiving afternoon contests.
"We did not feel it was
appropriate at this time," he said,
adding the league's competition
and broadcast committees were
looking into the matter.
The Monday night doubleheader
on ESPN on Sept. 14 will feature
Buffalo, with Terrell Owens, at
New England, with, the Patriots
hope, a returning Tom Brady. That
game will be followed by San
Diego at Oakland -- all original
AFL franchises.
While the AFL began play in
1960 and is not 50 years old until
2010, the NFL has chosen to
observe the 50th season of play by
memories is enveloped with fan
sights and sounds for me."
Schilling was 9-8 with a 3.87
ERA in 2007, when he spent
seven weeks on the disabled list
with shoulder tendinitis.
In the final
game of his
career, he won
Game 2 of
Boston's 2007
World Series
sweep of the
Colorado
Rockies, 2-
1. Schilling
allowed one run
on four hits in 5
1-3 innings and
was relieved
by Hideki
Okajima after
walking Todd
Helton on a full
count.
Schilling's
shoulder
injury came
to light early
the following
February when
he disclosed
on his blog that he and the team
disagreed about the best way
to treat it. He preferred surgery
while the team wanted him to
rehabilitate it in hopes of having
him pitch in 2008.
He eventually had surgery on
those franchises. The celebration
of that league, which merged with
the NFL in 1966 and began play
as one entity in 1970, begins with
the Sept. 14 doubleheader.
Goodell said he was hopeful
a proposal for an expansion of
the regular season to either 17
or 18 games could be presented
to the owners at the May league
meetings in Fort Lauderdale. The
league is considering dropping
one or two preseason games and
extending the regular schedule,
but remaining within the current
20-game format, although not
likely before 2011.
To do so will involve discussions
with the players union and the
league's media partners. Of
course, the collective bargaining
agreement with the players
expires after the 2010 season, so
a longer schedule is just one of
many issues in getting a deal done
with the NFLPA.
"I haven't made a decision on
whether we'll have a 17-game
June 23 to repair his right biceps
tendon and labrum. Dr. Craig
Morgan, the surgeon, said the
operation kept Schilling on target
to pitch by the middle of this
season if he decided to return.
Schilling was known for his
outspokenness.
In March 2005, he testified at a
congressional hearing concerning
steroids. In July 2007, he said on
HBO's "Costas Now" that the
refusals of Barry Bonds and Mark
McGwire to address speculation
about steroids use were tantamount
to admissions.
Last September, he criticized
former teammate Manny Ramirez
during a radio appearance.
"He was very kind, and well
mannered, but there were spurts
and times when you didn't know
who he was," Schilling said. "You
know, he was always kind and
nice for the most part, but he'd
show up the next day and say, `l'm
through with this team, I want out
now.'"
On Monday, Schilling announced
he was out of baseball.
"The game was here long before
I was, and will be here long after
I am gone," he wrote. "The only
thing I hope I did was never put in
question my love for the game, or
my passion to be counted on when
it mattered most. I did everything
I could to win every time I was
handed the ball."
or 18-game season. We'll have a
good feeling on it when we come
out of these meetings," Goodell
said. "We have to sit down with
our partners and go through
negotiations. We think our content
continues to be more valuable to
our partners."
Goodell also mentioned possibly
creating a developmental league:
"I would like to explore that in
the next negotiations."
He noted that nearly three
quarters of the teams did not raise
ticket prices this year, and that the
NFL has been hit by the economic
downturn. The league trimmed
its staff by 15 percent and many
teams have laid off employees
- even as free agents reap millions
in guaranteed salary.
"It's definitely hitting us on
our revenue side," he said of
the economy. "The risk become
greater in that kind of a climate
and your revenues become
challenged. There's a lot of
uncertainty out there."