Prior to Game 2 of the 2018 World Series between the Dodgers and Red Sox at Fenway Park on Wednesday night, some notable members of the 2004 championship Red Sox squad threw out the ceremonial first pitches. The details:
Ceremonial first pitch tonight: 2004 team members David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Kevin Millar, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Keith Foulke, Alan Embree.
— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) October 24, 2018
No Curt Schilling, who lives locally?
Red Sox exec: "We did not reach out to him, but it is not out of spite.''
As Dan Shaughnessy notes, many of the core contributors will be on hand, but Curt Schilling, who pitched the infamous "bloody sock" game in Game 6 of the ALCS that year, was not invited, at least according to this unnamed team exec. Without question, Schilling, who finished second in the AL Cy Young balloting that year, was an essential part of the team that broke the franchise's infamous World Series drought. Since the end of his playing career, Schilling has courted controversy on a number of occasions with his political stances, but the "not out of spite" qualifier suggests that's not why the team excluded him.
Schilling reacted to not getting invited to the ceremony early Thursday morning with a lengthy post on his Facebook page. Schilling referred to members of the Red Sox organization as "a few weak 'men' who've spent their entire lives paying and watching other men achieve." Here's the full, meandering post:
Earlier today I ventured on to Twitter... Saw "Curt Schilling" trending and immediately panicked! What did I do? What...
Posted by Curt Schilling on Wednesday, October 24, 2018
