Schilling Should Return August 5 or 6

Curt Schilling will make one more rehab start for Pawtucket this Tuesday, then join the Red Sox on the west coast.

Schilling was talking about Cal Ripken yesterday:

I came up [with Baltimore] in 1990 and got called into the game in the seventh inning, facing Kirby Puckett. And I get to two strikes and I'm shaking and shaking [off the catcher] because I want to throw a split. And I look in and the umpire calls timeout, and I'm looking around and Cal jogs in from shortstop.

And this is my first outing. And he doesn't know what I'm thinking - at least I didn't think so. And he goes, 'Hey, listen, you don't want to throw a split here. You want to throw a fastball above the letters.' So I throw a high fastball and it's strike three, inning over. I was in awe of him.

Considering the meticulous records Schilling keeps of his performances, I wasn't too surprised to find out that he remembered that day exactly right.

It was June 29, 1990 in Minnesota. It was Schilling's first major league appearance of the season. He came into the game to face Puckett with a runner on first and two outs. Schilling threw four pitches and struck Puckett out swinging to end the inning. (He pitched the final 2.1 innings of the game and got a save.)

Bet Schilling doesn't remember what day of the week it was, though.