By Mr. Curmudgeon
“The best way to catch a knuckleball,” said Bob Uecker, “is to wait until the ball stops rolling and then pick it up.” And no one knows this better than the Massachusetts Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Martha Coakley. In a radio interview, Coakley described Red Sox pitcher (and supporter of Republican Scott Brown) Curt Schilling as a “Yankees fan.” This stunned radio talk show host Dan Rea. “Curt Schilling, a Yankee fan? The Red Sox great pitcher of the bloody sock?” asked a shocked Rea.
Shilling was quick to respond. “I've been called a lot of things ...but never, I mean never, could anyone make the mistake of calling me a Yankee fan. Well, check that. If you didn't know what the hell is going on in your own state, maybe you could…”
In a tightly contested race, this will not go over well with rabid Red Sox fans. Schilling is best remembered as Boston’s starting pitcher in Game 2 of the 2004 World Series. When stitches on his right ankle (due to tendon surgery) popped, Schilling played through the pain as blood stained his sock. His efforts helped bring Boston a World Series victory. A victory that broke the Red Sox’s dreaded “curse of the Bambino,” which superstitious fans believed denied their city’s team a World Series championship for 86 years.
The Sox may have stepped out of the shadow of Babe Ruth’s curse, but that curse may have found a new home in the Democratic Party. President Obama is in Massachusetts to lend his support to Coakley’s flagging campaign. But, as Ken Harrelson of Sports Illustrated once observed, “Baseball is the only sport I know that when you’re on offense, the other team controls the ball.” What Ruth once said of Herbert Hoover, Scott Brown may say of Barack Obama, “…I had a better year than he did.”
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