Schilling Blogs on Baseball, ALS and Melanoma

(Curt and Shonda Schilling and family, courtesy of 38pitches.com)

At least a few of the politically progressive Yankees fans on this blog (myself, Obamarama, Betty and Bimbo all included) have complicated feelings about Curt Schilling. For one thing, he did a little Schilling for George W. Bush in 2004. For another, he's a hated Red Sox pitcher - and a good one!

So, the case should be closed, right? Wrong. Schilling is also an avid advocate for people with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and for those with malignant melanoma, both of which have endeared him greatly to Betty & Bimbo's lefty Yankee fan contingent.

Now comes Schilling's new blog, 38 Pitches, which he started this month to raise awareness about these two same illnesses, and also to talk about baseball. From his first post last week

I’ve done it. I’ve caved and am actually taking the blog plunge. There’s no single reason for it, but over the life of this space we’ll touch on a few.

I’ve been called everything from outspoken to blowhard to much, much worse. I believe those labels spring out of the fact that I care about the things people ask me as much as any other cause. I’ve never been a yes/no kind of guy, which probably hasn’t been received well by some. I don’t know that I’ll be changing my style, but I do know that getting ripped for something I say here will be getting ripped for something I actually said–with the entire contents of my comments included.

That’s not to say I’ll be preaching from the pulpit–far from it. Being a major league baseball player does not give me keen insight into politics, education, or anything else for that matter. It does give me insight and knowledge about baseball, about being part of a team, about excelling at something not many people can. Beyond that my thoughts and beliefs are my own and for the most part pretty normal.

The truth is, I’ve been wrong as many times, if not more, than I’ve been right in my life. I guess that’s part of the human package, something that makes me every bit as prone to mistakes as anyone. Like every other male on the planet I think I’m well informed on a lot of things, which usually lasts until I run into someone else who thinks he’s well informed but has a different opinion.

In recent posts, he claims that Daisuke is a force to be reckoned with and that more people should be talking about Keith Foulke's moments of greatness now that he's retired. Whatever.

But seriously, we honor the work he does on ALS and melanoma, and we'll agree to disagree on national politics and the AL East.