Transcript of Curt Schilling with D&C today

transcribed by Drew Scott

The following is a portion of the Q&A between Curt Schilling and Dennis & Callahan that took place this morning on Sportsradio 850 WEEI. To hear the whole interview, click here.

D&C: Curt Schilling joins us on the AT&T hotline, AT&T your world delivered, Good morning Curt how are you?

Schilling: Slow news day.

D&C: (Laughs) Oh no it’s not. Beyond the obvious, and I tend to agree with what you say, he didn’t go down the road of perdition that Bonds and Clemens have and that would be deny, deny, deny, were there any items that he talked about or left out that gave you pause to think that’s not exactly the truth or that’s not exactly probably the way it worked out for him.

Schilling: I can’t help but feel like and wonder if it’s a lie with everything given what’s happened. I didn’t expect him to go down the road he went, based on what I think about him in the past. I mean, it’s someone who I’ve always felt like had an incredibly, skillfully, carefully crafted image and you know he basically put that to rest last night. I wasn’t expecting that.

D&C: The fact that he said he didn’t know what substances he used…

Schilling: Yeah, Yeah.

D&C: And he didn’t know that he truly failed until that Serena Roberts lady approached him in the gym this weekend were two red flags that were like blowing in the wind for me.

Schilling: Yeah, you know you just can’t leave well enough alone it feels like. You know I mean both of those things to me scream: Oh come on! I mean what else are you [kidding] about right now then?

D&C: (Laughs) Well hey do you think he’s still juicing Curt? Because the question that I…

Schilling: I have no idea. You know, I don’t even go down that path, just for the simple fact that I just haven’t been able to believe anybody.

D&C: Right, but the thing that I can’t get an answer to Curt really is: Why stop? I mean he won three straight home run titles, he won an MVP, clearly it helped his game, and then he expects us to believe that his neck hurt one day so he decided to go clean.

Schilling: Yep. I mean maybe the 2003 positive was something that forced him into saying “I’m done,” but I find almost no reason besides that, that he would quit.

D&C: Let’s back it up a few more years before that — and I’ve had this conversation with people before, before the very public downfalls of Bonds and Clemens and now A-Rod, and before the Mitchell Report, and before the Congressional hearing, all of that stuff sort of put this sort of dark cloud over people who were associated with steroids, and being that the culture is what it was back in 2000, 1998, and 2001, and the evidence was clearly in favor of juicing because you could set records, you could have untold riches, why would guys not juice Curt?

And by the way, it would seem that every single subset in Major League Baseball would have a reason to do it. If I am Manny Alexander and just trying to hang on by my fingernails then I do it to hang on. If I am in the middle of the pack and want to get a bigger contract and stick for a longer period of time, I would do it. And if I am one of the greats like Bonds and Clemens and A-Rod, and wanted to be one of the all time greats than that’s a reason to do it too. Why wouldn’t you do it?

Schilling: Ummm, give me a minute.

D&C: Yeah, exactly. I can’t sit here in good conscience and say given those situations if this were my life, I know I’d be tempted, I definitely know that I’d be tempted, and I’d have to think long and hard well why wouldn’t I do this?
Schilling: Well, the unfortunate part is that, I think as a sport we send such a powerful message to the kids, which is being great with God’s given abilities, is just not enough. Go ahead and push yourself to that next level because it works. You can hit the ball farther, you can run faster, you can throw harder, you can be a fresher guy as long as you pay attention to the steroids and HGH that you put into your body, but hey it works.
D&C: We asked a question yesterday: “Would anyone surprise you if anyone came out, and anyone got caught and came out and tested positive?” And my answer was yeah one guy: Curt Schilling.

Schilling: Yeah, well. I think that might be one of the reasons why I’m pretty comfortable with saying: Hey, you know what? Throw the 103 out there, let’s get this over with, and do what we have to do and move on.

D&C: If your name is on that list we’re going to call you Curt. Who can do that? Obviously the union knows the 103.

Schilling: Yeah, well. Obviously someone writing a book can do it. You know the hard part for me, and obviously I’ve never been a big Alex fan, is that this guy is being put on the cross by himself. I find it very hard to believe that the amount of work needed to put names to numbers on those tests was done for he and he alone, and there is 103 people that are still, you know, their test results and names are scattered around. I think there is a master list, I think someone deciphered all of it, and I think it’s out there.

D&C: Yeah, but the suspects are teammates and friends, because each player, despite what A-Rod said last night, each player was told by Orza by the Union that they failed. The 103, 104, knew that they failed so they could have told their friends, their wives, their teammates, and the world could have spread from there. SI claims that they have four sources, so it is pretty well substantiated, and now Rod has confirmed it. But did you ever hear guys say: “Yeah, I tested positive”?

Schilling: No, no and I’m still trying to remember back to exactly how they explained it to us. I just know that there were a couple key pieces to the entire thing which were complete and total anonymity, no one would even have a clue as to the name of the player that tests positive, you would be notified, the only people that would know about a positive would be, I think it was, the club owner or the club president, the player, and there was a third person who I guess was someone at the MLBPA or something like that. I was one of the very vocal guys who said this is just not going to work, there is just no way that they are going to guarantee us this confidentiality.

D&C: Curt this may be a question for another today, but what does all of this do for the relationship between the players, the Players Association, Major League Baseball, ownership, management, the viability of that whole loosely defined relationship going forward to the next CBA and working together in the future.

Schilling: Unfortunately, I think this almost ensures of a work stoppage just because I can’t imagine the players union acquiescing to any of this stuff going forward. You know we spent years listening to them promise things and lie about it and be wrong about it, and now you can bet that the owners are going to go into the next labor negotiations and expect a triple thick testing process. They are going to go to the mat, and in the Players Association I think there is going to be an intense amount of concern when it comes to anything.

Schilling: Listen — the three greatest talents of our generation are cheaters and you know as much as that sucks, as players what do you say? How do you defend that? You can’t, I mean we’re stuck. The repercussions of this are going to be what they’re going to be, but there can’t be a situation where any player says, “This is just not fair.” We brought it on ourselves and we’ve damaged the sport in a way that if you really look back at 97, 98, or 99 when Sosa and McGwire were doing what they were doing did anyone fathom that we could piss all that goodwill away in ten years? That being said, from an ownership standpoint, you know what my coffers are full.

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