ON THE DL

On the DL Daily: Schilling and Lance - and The USS New York

Like most people in the sports world, our focus has been on the Madness of March for the last week or so. We wanted to shift off basketball for the day to talk about some other things that have been on our mind.

First, we discuss the recent announcement of Curt Schilling. He’s retiring. Yes, we thought that happened last year as well. But it’s official now. For those not in Philadelphia, Schilling holds a special place in the minds (and hearts) of Phils fans for his performance in 1993. Sure every one of his teammates hated him. Sure they actually had to stop fights in the clubhouse (reportedly). But fans loved him because he was great.

It wasn’t until later in his career that the true, self-promoting-until-nobody-pays-attention-anymore-so-i’ll-start-my-own-blog Schil came out. Nick and I discuss his career arc and wonder if the way he was in Boston tarnished his legacy?

Is Schilling a Hall of Famer? It’s entirely debatable, so rather than debate that, we discuss the fact that maybe Schilling knew he’d be on the borderline, but if he became a spokesman and an ambassador for the game, it would help his cause.

And speaking of causes, he’s done more for ALS than anyone. So he should get a hearty pat on the back for that. We just wish he wasn’t always the one doing the patting.

Moving to actual baseball, we discuss the Finals of the WBC. Did anyone care? The game seemed interesting, but is it right/fair/just/smart to have a tournament where the host country doesn’t even care it’s going on. More people cared about the score of the American game this weekend than the score of the Americans in the semifinals of the WBC. (Note, both lost).

Congrats to Japan. And Korea. And Baseball. We just wonder if anyone else really cared.

Political Safari: We discuss the recent christening (ed note: thanks for the clarification Dr. MG) of the USS New York, a warship constructed in part from materials extracted from the rubble of the World Trade Center. At first, we both thought this was a gag chain letter, but snopes.com says it’s legit, there’s an actual ship with quotes from actual politicians.

We know 9/11 is still a sensitive subject, and we try to give the event its proper perspective and respect, but we thought it was important to discuss. Should we be making war ships out of the World Trade Center? It was a civilian building, with many civilian lives lost. Sure there were FDNY, NYPD, Port Authority and military people who -- in the utmost display of bravery and heroics -- lost their lives. But it was a financial building, that the US government turned into a war ship.

We were thinking maybe a museum would be more appropriate. Like this, perhaps.

Again, please listen, as I’m trying not to misrepresent what we discussed in these words.

Speculation Station: Lance Armstrong fell off his bike and may have broken his collar bone. Nick speculates that this fall and injury could be an elaborate hoax to avoid the Tour de France, and perhaps their drug testing. Could Armstrong be pulling an A-Rod and getting hurt to avoid further scrutiny?

And are Schilling and Armstrong more alike than we realized? What other athletes (Favre) are like this -- where we should love them but they seem to love themselves so much it’s hard to? And what athlete will be the next hero we collectively turn on? We’d like your ideas.

Housekeeping: New stuff on the website. Congrats to the Rutgers women’s basketball team making it to the Sweet 16. We plug the Deadcast and Nick admits that he doesn’t listen to podcasts. I offer him the Cliff’s Notes concept to listening. And are you a Friend of the Program?

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