One Down, One More to Go

After all the partying and parades died down, the Red Sox 2007 off-season has officially begun. Going into the winter, there were two priorities which trumped everything else: 1) sign Schilling to a incentive-laden deal so he can finish out his career in Boston and 2) resign World Series MVP Mike Lowell and avoid A-Rod like the plague that he is. I'm happy to report that the Sox can check objective one of their list: Schilling got a one-year deal for a base salary of eight million. If he reaches all the incentives in the package, he will earn $14 million.

Say what you want about Curt (and by now everyone in the region has built their own detailed opinion about him) but I think everyone would agree that he deserved this. It would be an absolute joke to see him waste one last year in some other city (he couldn't have honestly been serious during the year when he mentioned Tampa Bay as a possible landing spot). He is no longer the dominant pitcher he once was but as we saw in the playoffs, he is still quite effective, particularly on the biggest stage: October baseball. The guy has now been a World Champion three times and they've all come in the last seven seasons. He's the greatest big game pitcher of his generation. Along with all his personal accomplishments, he's becoming more and more of a leader, teacher and motivator to the young pitchers around him. Think he had anything to do with Beckett making such a gigantic leap from his first year in Boston to this year? Beckett has all the talent in the world but there's no doubt Curt helped him out with all the little things that the media and common fan isn't privy to.

While I certainly don't agree with his political views, I have to say that Curt Schilling is a breath of fresh air in this day and age of Sportscenter soundbites and YouTube. Yes, he can be a blowhard and self-important but I'll take that with everything else he does. He's a pillar of the community, he talks to the media (and even beats them to the punch by writing his own blog) and he is one of the only professional athletes I can think of in Boston or anywhere in the US that gets it. He understands how lucky he is to be paid ridiculous sums of money to play a child's game for a living. He might always have an agenda but he has a heart. How many other athletes are consistently interesting? Most have rocks for brains and couldn't care less about anything outside their little bubble. For all of his quirks, Curt Schilling will always be one of my favorite Red Sox players. He's helped deliver two World Series titles in four years and who knows what will happen next season?