ESPN just extended Curt Shilling’s suspension for hate-tweeting through the end of the season, which gives me the excuse to link to David Roth, at Vice:
We’re born weird, which is good. Or, more precisely, we’re born as soft, stupendously incapable noise machines and gradually lengthen as we pass into a period spanning several years that’s defined by the sort of free-associative disinhibition associated with mellower hallucinogens. Then we’re emotionally 14 years old for like, twenty years, and, somewhere in there, a combination of negative reinforcement and the world’s pressures turn us into humans. It is not efficient, nor is it especially pleasant in parts, but it is the best we’ve come up with after a few millennia. For the most part, it works.
There are exceptions to this rule, however, and they are fucking terrifying…
Curt Schilling, who was a great and gritty Major League pitcher and who is settling loudly into a second career as a curdled Facebook uncle, allowed an especially dank and not especially coherent Islamophobic meme to escape from his Facebook account and onto his Twitter feed. He was suspended by his current employers at ESPN, and apologized. He will absolutely do this sort of thing again, because he is Curt Schilling. And Curt Schilling is this way, and is the flailing vainglorious dipstick that he is, in part because he is That Type of Person.
He is hugely blessed, and the lightning in his right arm has made Schilling’s life very different, and made Schilling himself very different, than they otherwise might have been. This has worked out well for him in some ways—he earned nearly $115 million as a baseball player, and enjoyed other advantages like having the state of Rhode Island mistake him for someone who deserved a $75 million business loan. His talent shaped his life, and more specifically shaped it into a bell curve of sorts: he leveraged his talent and became great, and then at some point the relationship shifted such that he was on the wrong side of it, and Curt Schilling just became kind of an asshole. Schilling is, as any athlete and many non-athletes claim to be, an authentically self-made man. It’s just not much of a compliment in this case…
To see Curt Schilling in action—gleefully inveighing against entire religions and orientations and belief systems and worldviews, blithely believing that every bit of offense or outrage or hurt he causes is the result of someone else’s ignorance or sissification or bad faith—is to see someone who, as the pitching coaches say, trusts his stuff. It’s also the natural behavior of someone who has been trained never to question himself, and who spent so much of his life—including that period in which the rest of humanity is broken and remade by the world into actual people—being coddled and indulged and absolved and deferred to because of that magical right arm of his….
srv
Roth could write some great lyrics, but not sure I want to hear him emote about sports.
NotMax
Sitting in the passenger seat while an 87-year-old woman (Mom) is at the wheel navigating Long Island traffic is … interesting.
If I didn’t already smoke (cigars), would have beyond ample reason to begin.
Mark
Great baseball player. Lifetime stats were good, but not up there with the best. Claims he didn’t make the Hall of Fame because he’s a Republican. Sorry Curt, you were good, but nowhere near that good.
Not a great business man either. Surprised there was no mention of his bankruptcy in connection with that $75 million loan. The guy is a real asshole.
sigaba
Of course Curt Schilling has a huge collection of Nazi paraphernalia and SS uniforms.
David Koch
¡Jeb! isn’t good at this.
sigaba
@David Koch: First they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win.
Or, if you’re Jeb Bush, first they laugh at you, then they laugh at you, then they laugh at you.
craigie
Being (very) good at something doesn’t make you a good person. A hero-worship culture tends to forget this.
okay, then
Schilling: “Base-a-ball has been very very good to me.”
Ruckus
@sigaba:
I know someone who reportedly also has such a huge collection and while I’m pretty sure he can’t pitch he is a gigantic asshole. Ego about the size of 20 normal humans, or half a T Rump.
David Koch
Even the neo-con WaPo is saying No Más
Suzanne
Spiky, acid-tipped dicks and all that.
Old Dan and Little Anne
Fuck Curt Schilling.
David Koch
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Old Dan and Little Anne: Not a Boston fan, oh no, but I had such great admiration for the man as a pitcher until we all found out that the bloody sock was a fake. That could have been taken as a great joke/encouragement for his teammates, if he were a better human.
I’ve been down the rabbit hole of the Hugo awards and Puppygate for the past couple of weeks and feel more wounded by that experience than I do by the idiotic politics of the day. I thought it would be a bit of an escape. Went to hear John Scalzi speak on his book tour just before WorldCon, and decided to watch the awards; in the meantime I’ve read way too many mean things posted by supporters of the puppies, as if they were the offended parties. It’s a mess, but not so messy that you can’t see that the more obnoxious of them are Gamergaters, of the most vile.
lgerard
I worked with his wife Shonda on a project about 10 years ago and she seemed such a pleasant and thoughtful person. Hard to understand how she married such an narcissistic asshole.
He had quite a few teammate .issues in Philadelphia and Arizona
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
I feel you. Every time I go to Las Vegas (next trip coming up in mid-November) I grapple with this. My 85-year-old mother is still sharp as a tack and functions well, but she absolutely refuses to let me drive, because she “knows the town.” It’s frustrating, and I dread the day when we’re going to have to have the big talk with her about not driving any more.
RK
Schilling beat the Yankees so all sins are forgiven. I also really like his Kingdoms of Amalur RPG.
David Koch
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA
NH woman falls asleep during boring-low-energy ¡Jeb! town hall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvkBFWd7zYA&feature=youtu.be
¡Jeb! isn’t good at this.
David Koch
Baby Doc says key to beating addiction is working longer hours
Anne Laurie
@Pie Happens (opiejeanne):
Yeah, just the minimal reading I did about that shanda convinced me I drifted away from sf fandom at just about the right time. Goddess knows we had plenty of ugliness available during the period (early 1970s-1990) when it was my primary community, but in those days we had to trade insults by mail, and the one time I got personally targeted by a nutball the male fans in our household answered the phone for a couple weeks until a new outrage-target distracted the offender. I’m too old & slow for a global community where a sociopath can assassinate others’ reputation across multiple platforms for a decade before getting caught!
Paul T
Tom House was a former major league pitcher. If you have seen the video of Hank Aaron’s 715th homer, Mr. House is the player in the bullpen who caught the ball. After he retired, he earned a Ph.D in psychology, and wrote a great book called “The Jock’s Itch”. He described (some) professional athletes as suffering from what he called the Terminal Adolescent Syndrome.
“Athletes are Nintendo,” he said. “Real world people are human computers.” Because of the special deference paid to extraordinary athletes dating to childhood, they are not programmed to deal with everyday problems that confront those whose skills do not inspire adoring crowds or million-dollar contracts.”
Whenever I see this type of disastrous behavior by athletes or former athletes, I always think back to Terminal Adolescent Syndrome.
LA Times archive story about House and the book, from 1989:
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-05-14/sports/sp-212_1_doctor-terminally-tom-house
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Anne Laurie: 70s through 90s I just read everything we had in the local library, and that was a great collection. I wrote letters to Heinlein and Damon Knight, and they wrote me back. That was as far as my fandom went. I didn’t even know there were conventions or anything like that for fans. The first convention I went to was the first North American Discworld Convention, in Tempe. Had a ball, didn’t know a thing about politics because it was so well run and the Brits all came over and helped make it a success. It was wonderful. I’ve been to three more Discworld cons, but this year they rolled it into WorldCon (Sasquan) and we didn’t go because of the cost. it turned out that my husband needed back surgery in July, so we weren’t sure we would have been able to attend anyway, but the surgery was a great success, he’s fine.
We heard Craig Johnson (Longmire) speak the week before Scalzi came to town, and just missed Louise Penny’s (Inspector Gamache mysteries) visit by a day; didn’t think to check her book tour schedule until it was over. We were the youngest people at the Craig Johnson bash, and the oldest at the John Scalzi do. Was really surprised the room wasn’t packed for Scalzi.
Thoughtful Today
““The Problem with Confidence””
…
My first thought was this was about statistical confidence and was going to be about Nate Silver ….
…
But it is “Late Night” …..
mikefromArlington
He used to be big into eq2 back when I played. When he started his own company, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/38_Studios , he brought over the lead dev from eq2 as well. You can read the wiki on how well his venture went.
redshirt
I am as big a Red Sox fan as exists (I’m still listening on the radio) and Curt’s bloody sock moment is unarguably one of the greatest moments in not just Sox history but MLB history and I’ll love him forever for that season, but otherwise, fuck that dumbass Curt Schilling.
Tommy
@redshirt: He was a stud. Clearly. But not HOF numbers in his time. I have to think of the people that came before him, and so I compare his stats against those of a pitcher from my team, Bob Gibson. He isn’t really in the same ballpark as a Gibson or many others. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t really good at his job, he was. Just maybe not the best, of the best of the best.
Oh and he took hundred of millions and ran a firm into the ground as a fellow gamer, well I will never understand. Well maybe I can, because just cause I like to play games doesn’t mean I could develop one.
redshirt
@Tommy: He’s a hypocrite Republican, just like the rest of them.
Zinsky
Up until 125 years ago or so, being able to hurl a rawhide ball fast and accurate didn’t entitle a person to a life of wealth and fame. Which is to say – we pay these fucking professional athletes too much and treat them like royalty when many are simply ignorant dirtbags like Schilling.
Tommy
@redshirt:
My mom likes to joke she put headphones on her belly, when I was a fetus, so I could listen to Jack Buck call a Cardinals game. Baseball and radio go that deep in my household.
It is 2015 so I use the MLB app, but I listen to the radio broadcast of almost every game.
Thoughtful Today
“Moneyball” takes on a whole different meaning in that context.
RK
@Tommy:
But he made a quite good one. I think his problem was on the business end.
Tommy
@Thoughtful Today: If you follow what he did, and I guess I only did because I am a baseball fan and a gamer, it is hard to wrap your mind around. About everything that is wrong with the world he did. Then after fleecing an entire state government he felt he was the person harmed. The victim. I can’t find the link to this long form article on his gaming company, but trust me when I say the dude is an idiot.
Tommy
@RK: Did you play it?
I always knew his politics were to the far right. To each their own. I just always liked, as a fellow professional white dude, he was so open about playing video games. That it was a passion of his.
I often feel folks look down on me for it. And I think all of us believe, gosh if I was rich I’d develop my own game. He tried that and it didn’t work out so well.
RK
@Tommy: Yeah, I played it a lot though never completed it. (I had a monthly rental thing for a while.) Thought it was a really good, fun game, one of the best RPGs to come out during the XBOX 360 era. I think it garnered an 80+ on Metacritic. If memory serves, he really screwed up the budgeting and didn’t handle the collapse well either. It’s now about $5 used at places and I intend on buying it in the near future,
Another Holocene Human
@Mark:
See, there’s Red Sox fan logic, and there’s everybody else. Curt Schilling will always be in the Red Sox Hall of Legends. He’s just soured that over the years by, say, holding small New England states hostage. One of Schilling’s problems is that he was too much of a fan than is healthy for a professional, if you know what I mean.
Another Holocene Human
@David Koch:
Ruh roh. Reminds me of when “I’m a regular guy in a pick me up truck” Scottie Brown flubbed a Red Sox question. It was a big fat one hanging over the plate and the idiot whiffed.
Another Holocene Human
@Pie Happens (opiejeanne): Yeah. Doesn’t Schilling kind of remind you of Vox Day?
Another Holocene Human
@Tommy: Shit, who cares, Tommy, WE WON THE WORLD SERIES! WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Thoughtful Today
Baseball, threaded comments, and timing.
NorthLeft12
@David Koch:
My recollection is that AIPAC has been behaving this same way for years. What has always been mystifying to me is why Dems did not realize that this organization has been basically in the tank for the Republicans for quite awhile now.
If I had to say what is different this time is that AIPAC and Netanyahu and the Repubs took the 2014 midterm results to heart and completely overspent what little political capital they had. They also mistook President Obama’s poor polling numbers for weakness and went for the kill. As Charlie Pierce is fond of saying, Obama found out he had nor more f*cks to give and basically has stood the lame duck model on its head.
I would like to believe that a large number of Dem members of congress also were more than a little offended by the blatant and crude attacks on Obama and their party and decided to fight back……but I would also like to believe that they realized this deal is their best hope to avoid a war [yes another war] in the Middle East. This time against a bigger and strategically more dangerous opponent, and this time alone.
To those of you who might think Israel would fight beside you, think again. They get you to fight their wars…..against non-neighbours.
Joel
@Pie Happens (opiejeanne): The bloody sock was fake? I mean, Curt Schilling is a dipshit, a maroon, etc. but I’ve never seen anything credible to suggest that he faked the ankle injury/bloody sock.
NorthLeft12
As a Tigers fan, I equated Schilling with Jack Morris as similar pitchers with similar bios. After reviewing their stats I would give Schilling the nod as the better all around pitcher, but Morris certainly had his moments for the Tigers, and then for the Twins in that great World Series against the Braves. And Jack was a dependable workhorse who would pitch and pitch and eat up innings through thick and thin. I never recall him being injured and missing starts.
And generally, my memories are that he was a pretty okay guy. Frank and honest about his talent, and the business of baseball/free agency. I don’t recall him being in any sort of trouble either. Just a good guy to cheer for.
Crusty Dem
@Mark:
Really depends on your metrics. Old school(W/Ks/ERA) probably not. New school (WAR/ERA+) he’s more than good enough. Some injuries in his prime, so his career numbers aren’t dominant, but you’d certainly rather have him than Glavine or Smoltz, who are both in the HOF recently.
IMO, his insane post-season state/accomplishments put him in…
But he is a gaping asshole, soooo….
Paul T
@Tommy: I think this is the long form Schilling story you were talking about…..or one of them, anyway:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2012/07/38-studios-end-game/
RSA
@craigie:
Right. Have any other James Thurber readers thought of “The Greatest Man in the World” in relation to the Trump campaign? It also happens to us again and again with sports.
FlipYrWhig
@NorthLeft12: I think of Schilling (and I was a huge fan of his when I was living in Philadelphia; was at one of the games when he made it to 300 Ks for the season) as similar to someone like Ron Guidry or Orel Hershiser. Some all-time great _moments_ but not an all-time great _career_.
Chris
@Mark:
I read about conservative actors or directors saying this from time to time too. Liberal Hollywood, doncha know. A conservative just can’t catch a break. And pretty much every field has its equivalents.
It’s funny; Republicans, who whine incessantly about the politics of victimhood, are far and away the ones who practice it the most (and with the least justification).
kc
So many words, so little substance.
...now I try to be amused
@NorthLeft12:
I associate Schilling with Morris too. They fall short of Hall of Fame quality based on their regular seasons, but both were great postseason pitchers.
Paul in KY
@srv: That’s a pretty funny comment!
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: I wouldn’t necessarily call Lemmie an asshole. I have never actually met him, though.
Paul in KY
@Zinsky: It is truly an accident of modern history that they are so well compensated.
Paul in KY
@NorthLeft12: I think Jack Morris belongs in HOF. One of the ultimate big game pitchers.
MCA1
@RK: I think you might reconsider, if you believe the people who you feel look down on your video game hobby might think differently about it when they learn that Curt Schilling shares your passion. His entire post-baseball life is as the Vice author described it: he’s a walking billboard of arrested development, and the epitome of the stereotype you probably feel others unduly place on you.
MCA1
Schilling’s the latest prominent example, I guess. I remember 15 years ago having a lot of conversations about how if it weren’t for having a bazooka attached to his right shoulder, Roger Clemens would be a wife-beating, in-and-out of the local jail, two-bit redneck drunk in some godforsaken shithole in the middle of Texas. Instead, he won the genetic lottery and has a net worth with 2 or 3 more digits than mine.
MCA1
@Paul in KY: Umm, no. For starters, baseball’s about more than the great moments, or Joe Carter would have a HoF case, too. I say that as a Twins fan whose greatest sports fan night was attending Game 7 in ’91. Sorry, though – a career ERA+ of 105, best single season ERA+ of 127, and career WAR of 44 is not an all-time great pitcher.
I can’t even get on board with your last sentence, really. Yes, he was great in ’84 and ’91, but don’t forget the other parts of his postseason career. Like the time he gave up 6 runs in a loss to the Twins in the ’87 ALCS, which his Tigers, who were the much better team, lost. Or his followup to ’91, when he got absolutely shelled throughout the 1992 postseason (0-3 with 19 ERs, 6 HRs and 15 walks in just 23 innings). It’s a miracle the Jays won it all while getting three awful starts out of the guy who was the reigning World Series MVP. Morris had a 3.80 ERA in the postseason for his career; it’s just that all anyone talks about anymore is his shutting down the Braves.
Paul in KY
@MCA1: We’ll just have to agree to disagree.
Bill Murray
Without this incident, Schilling would have been in the Hall (or very close) in the next year or two. The last two years he did pretty well in the voting, with 5 first balloters and the last year Morris was eligible. Excepting Clemens, he is probably the best pitcher on the ballot until Mariano comes on in 2019, Trevor Hoffman and Mike Mussina are his main competitors. As the top player at an important position and with a pretty good resume, although as was said more by sabermetrics (27th best starter of all time) than conventional measures, he was pretty much guaranteed 50-60% of the vote and with a little luck getting over the hump into the Hall.
I would probably vote for Schilling’s near teammate Mussina. Basically the same sabermetric Hall record, much better conventional record, can’t be anywhere near the same jerkstore
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Joel: I was pretty sure I heard an interview years later when he admitted that it was enhanced and either not blood, or not all blood.
LosGatosCA
wasn’t it that great American philosopher Archie Bunker who once said,
“Each role model in life provides the same type of inspiration in others, to be better than themselves, while each asshole is an asshole in their own unique way, trying to keep others from aspiring to be anything at all.”
or as Jack Nicholson put it so eloquently:
“He makes us want to be the least person we can be, and then aim lower.”