Schilling Has a ‘Thorne’ in His Side

Last night Curt Schilling dominated once again as he faced off with Oriole’s flame thrower Daniel Cabrera. Schilling only allowed one run, a Miguel Tejada solo shot, in 7 innings of work, and the Red Sox won the game 6-1. But that’s not the story here.

In the 5^th inning of last nights game play-by-play announcer, Gary Thorne, was reminiscing about Schilling’s courageous performance in the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. Out of no where Thorne states that the “blood” on the sock that the whole nation saw on national television that October night was in fact red paint.

“The great story we were talking about the other night was that famous red stocking that he wore when they finally won, the blood on his stocking. Nah. It was painted. Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR.” — 4.25.07, Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne

Boston Globe reporter, Gordon Edes, was at the game covering it for the Globe. When Edes heard this he immediately made his way to the Red Sox clubhouse to ask Mirabelli if he in fact did disclose this information to Gary Thorne:

“What? Are you kidding me? He’s [expletive] lying. A straight lie. I never said that. I know it was blood. Everybody knows it was blood.” – 4.25.07, Doug Mirabell

Today this was the lead story on ESPN’s Sport Center, and the Baseball media has flooded Camden Yards to get reaction the day after the fact. Doug Mirabelli has probably never had so many microphones and tape recorders shoved in his face in his life. Mirabelli said that he had talked to Thorne about six months after the World Series. Mirabelli recalled that Thorne made a comment about Schillings great performance with the bloody sock and all. Doug remembers saying, “Yeah, we got a lot of attention for that.” Mirabelli adamantly denies that he ever uttered the words “paint” or fake blood in his brief conversation with Thorne.

Thorne also had to deal with the mass of media at the ball park today. Thorne informed everyone that he did not pick up on the sarcasm when he had his conversation with Doug. Thorne said that he and Doug basically had a communication problem, when Doug said one thing and Gary heard another. Thorne was apologetic to Schilling, Terry Francona, and all of Curt’s supporters. Thorne said that he would never report anything that he thought was false, and at the time believed that Mirabelli’s comments were told in sincerity.

So lets just set the record straight, it was not paint, it was not ketchup, it was not toe nail polish; it was real blood that came out of Curt Schillings ankle. For all you bitter Yankee fans and Schilling haters just take a look at this picture if you have any doubt in your mind.

I’ll admit it Schilling is not the most likeable guy in the game; he’s got a mouth that just does not shut, and now fingers that don’t stop typing. And sometimes you just want to tell the guy to shut up and pitch, but for maybe the first time Schilling is the innocent victim of the media. If you remember correctly Schilling got lit up by the Yankees in game 1 of the 2004 ALCS, and he had blood in his sock then. After game 5, the bloody sock game, Schill said, “I did not even know if I could take the ball tonight.” Schilling had to deal with one of the best lineups in baseball that night, and if you think that he had enough time to think about putting some red paint on his sock than you should be committed.

Some people are saying that we need to send in the CSI team to Cooperstown to do some tests on the sock to make sure it is really blood. The sock sits in a class case next to other pieces of memorabilia from the Red Sox World Series run. The red blood has oxidized, and now is more brown that red. If you want to send in the CSI unit be my guest, but you will only add fuel to the fire in Curt Schilling’s mind.

Dr. Morgan sets the record straight.