Blabbermouth

In his posts at Sons of Sam Horn, Curt Schilling maintains that, in response to his reputation as a blabbermouth, he never chases after reporters to give his opinion, that he is simply answers the questions he is asked. For example, On March 17, 2006, he wrote:

... as I was telling multiple members of the media yesterday, if they don't come to my locker and ask questions, I don't get quoted, you don't hear from me, ever. Those wanting to piss and moan about the WEEI calls, np, but I've never called in to discuss me, every call I've made has been to defend some idiotic comments being made by someone that knows zilch about one of my teammates.

After I pitch the media comes to my locker, they ask me questions and I answer them. Not hard to figure out I am not a yes/no kinda guy, never have been, but what I say, whether I am right or wrong, is who I am. You don't like it, tough, don't read it. I don't speak to make peoples opinions of me change, I speak what's on my mind given the question asked. I don't try to make an 'impact' by saying things, but I do think I've not considered that impact at times in the past and spoken on things that would have been better left unsaid. If that was the case, sue me, I'm human.

My point has always been that once the question is asked, it is under Schilling's absolute control whether he will answer that question, and if so, how long and detailed that answer will be.

I guess this is where I "piss and moan" -- because this week, he opened his yap again, on WEEI. (Maybe Curt was a guest on the show, I don't know. But if he called in, it was a situation in which he was clearly not being asked a question by a reporter.)

Anyway, Schilling mouthed off about tonight's Tampa Bay starter Scott Kazmir and the numerous HBP and bench-clearing incidents between the Rays and Sox over the years.

Schilling claimed Kazmir was

hitting multiple batters every time he threw against us. I don't know if any of it was intentional, but he kept hitting players. ... We made it clear to them, for the most part, that we were only throwing at guys on their team because their young pitchers couldn't throw inside. Obviously, he's getting better and he's learning. But you don't learn to pitch in the big leagues inside, you learn how to do that in the minor leagues. And you can't do that here because you get people hurt.

First of all, this stuff between the teams started a long time (1999?) before Schilling came to Boston, and it pisses me off when he tries to come off as Mr. Red Sox Nation.

Second, according to the St. Petersburg Times, in seven games against Boston, Kazmir has hit five batters, while in those same games, Boston pitchers hit 10 Devil Rays.

Kazmir responded: "I was looking at a video before of past things with the Red Sox and Devil Rays, and they had all this other stuff before I was even in pro ball. And all of a sudden it's all because of me? ... It doesn't make too much sense. It's his opinion. He wants to be heard."

If I recall, Schilling spoke out about this stuff last season, as well. Unless he is actually involved in an incident, this is one of those topics on which he should keep his opinions to himself.