Sorry. No, Seriously, I'm Sorry! No, REALLY, I AM SORRY!!

Yes, you are.

Curt apologizes.

Comments

[YF]

I, for one, am tired of this meme. Can we all just please move along, for the love of g-d.

[Brad]

Yeah, I agree, YF. I've said it before: the only thing I'm concerned with when it comes to baseball players is exactly that...playing baseball!
I'm so tired of the "he said, she said" crap when it comes to baseball players. They're not doctors and lawyers (although some may be, and I'm sorry in advance), but they play ball for a living, and should not be held to any higher standard when it comes to the things they say. Everyday people say stupid things, and most don't think anything of it, but for whatever reason, when it comes to ball players, everyone blows it out of the water.
It's sickening, which is why I try to not comment on the issue[s] (if that's what you want to call them at all).

[Andrew]

I don't think so, Brad.

Curt Schilling is a famous person, a household name, whether he likes it or not (oh, make no mistake, he does). He therefore has a responsibility, more than you or me, to be careful of what he says. When you're in the public eye, and especially when you put yourself there, you're going to be rightfully blasted by all who hear you if you say stupid or irresponsible things.

It's nice that he apologized, but hopefully he's learned that he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to public speaking. And hopefully he applies that lesson when he thinks that because he's famous he should run for office.

[DAW]

Brad, like it or not, public figures, such as famous baseball players ARE held to a higher standard, for a simple reason. You're right that people say stupid things everyday; the difference here is that when someone like Schilling say it, it's recorded in the press, and can have an adverse effect on someone's life. I'm not defending Bonds per se, but he has a young son - possible he might have read or heard that his father is a tax cheat, an adulterer, etc? Wouldn't he be hurt by that?
That's why people need to think before they sound off with bs like that in the media.

[Yankee Fan In Boston]

the second rodriguez uttered the word "sleepover", this place was hopping.

funny. now we're taking the high road...

curt apologized because francona told him to "zip it a little bit."

http://tinyurl.com/2lvg9d

[SF]

I'm tired of it, YF, as well. Really tired. I wasn't trying to beat a dead horse here, just figured that this might, MAYBE, give a little closure on the issue.

Man, am I naive.

[dc]

has gary thorne apologized yet?

[dc]

just kidding...curt should just issue a blanket generic apology, a disclaimer of sorts, covering all the dumb things he'll say this year...

[Tyrel SF]

Good idea dc. Maybe I should try that too.

(ahem)

I would like to apologize in advance for any misinformed, ill-conceived, idiotic, self-righteous, gloating and/or offensive posts that I make over te course of the season.

Wow, that was easy.

[dc]

ditto for me tyrel...you don't mind if i borrow your disclaimer i hope?...i know i'm gonna need it

[Josh SF (D1)]

I may be wrong, but I thought people here were picking on the A-Rod sleepover quote because it was...umm...pretty funny. In a really awkward sort of way. I haven't looked at the thread and don't care enough to...but it seems appropriate to point and giggle a bit there. Maybe we were parsing for a deeper meaning the way ESPN and Co. tried to; that's pretty silly...but I don't really know.

Anyway, Schil just said something blatantly wrong and insulting. And he said it publicly. If he'd, say, pulled a Mel Gibson and badmouthed a certain religious group, wouldn't that be a major topic of discussion? What if it's an "accident," just a bit of innocent insensitivity? Granted, that'd be one hell of a lot more serious then this was...but I think there's a difference between parsing somebody's words a bit and beating the proverbial dead horse. And something like this carried a bit more weight to it then, say, the A-Rod thing, because it dealt with A. Borderline slander, B. a controversial impending baseball record that we should all have some interest in, and C. it flew directly in the face or Ortiz's comments on roughly the same issue.

PS: I'm not implying that Schilling would ever say or believe something like that, nor am I saying anything about Christians; it just seemed a fairly appropriate analogy.

[Tyrel SF]

"ditto for me tyrel...you don't mind if i borrow your disclaimer i hope?...i know i'm gonna need it"

should thing dc, but we'll have to add "plagiarism"...

; )

[Yankee Fan In Boston]

i brought up the sleepover remark because it was the first thing that popped into my head that was not baseball related yet received a bunch of attention.

obviously accusing someone of things like this is on another level.

i hate myself for commenting on this at all, but i wanted to share that tito told him to "shut up." i thought that was funny.

[Tyrel SF]

"sure thing" that is

"I'm tired of it, YF, as well. Really tired"

I'm confused. This is a fresh issue-the quote is very recent and the apology was just issued this afternoon. It involves a member of the red sox and the man who is about to pass Aaron's record. It's not your everyday B flat dumb quote. It amounts to a personal attack on another player's private life.Why is this not worthy of discussion? What exactly are you so weary of?

[DAW]

me, sorry

[SF]

I explained myself in the previous thread, Andrews, here's the post:

Last night I expressed some fatigue over this issue (and others, like A-Rod's narcissism). I still feel that fatigue, though clearly Curt's gone over a line as narcissism is by definition self-involved while Curt has made false allegations about what Bonds has admitted to doing. So Schilling deserves every bit of criticism that he is enduring, and he should, however impossible this may be, keep his trap shut.

That being said, I AM still suffering a bit of fatigue from what I think of as "PAS", or "pinheaded athlete syndrome", wherein players that we know can't keep their mouth shut don't, and say something dumb. Earlier this year Johnny Damon, speaking about being a Yankee, said, compared to Boston, he was "in a much better place", and I cringed. I didn't post about it though, however true a sentiment it might be for him, it struck me as cold, impolitic, and unthoughtful towards Boston and it's fans, considering what he accomplished there. I just didn't feel like it was worth pointing out, as if we felt the obligation to highlight every stupid, egotistical, or insensitive comment from the players we watch we'd never discuss more interesting topics.

All that said, Schill made a huge error in judgment, and this only exposes him as hypocritical.

[YF]

Andrews: I feel like we've been around the block on Schilling's comments over the last couple of days, and I don't think further discussion is bearing much fruit. I'd love to get back to actual baseball.

And I countered with this, SF:

"I agree in principle, but IMO, Schilling's comments often rise above the mere "stupid, egotistical, or insensitive" because they are often directed at specific individuals - Bonds, Arod, Lou Pinella, John Kerry for example. He seems to have an agenda that he's trying to advance, and therefore outbursts like this are IMO at least worthy of discussion."

This issue is still playing out, as there remains the possibility of legal action by Bonds, so closure may be too much to hope for at this point.

And YF, maybe I missed an earlier discussion of this topic (and if so, sorry), but I thought the first time it was brought up was in the yanks game thread last night by Trisk:

" Not to be an instigator but why is there no mention of good ol' Red Lights comments on WEEI today? So much to say.....

Posted by: Triskaidekaphobia | Tuesday, May 08, 2007 at 09:01 PM"

[DAW]

me

[Tyrel SF]

Is there actually a threat of legal action?

[DAW]

Not that I've heard - but the possibility remains

[yf2k]

I think you all are being too hard on Curt.

The speed of Schilling's backpedal here suggests that he could at least be a "lockdown" cover corneback in the NFL.