Curt Schilling, sports, and character

Home Opinion Curt Schilling, sports, and character

On the whole, this week’s CCA on “Sports and Character” was a tremendous success, and a majority of the speakers seemed to be well-chosen and informative. Former all-star pitcher Curt Schilling, however, gave a lecture titled “Sports and Character” on Sunday night. Given his history of impropriety and hasty apologies, the decision to have Schilling speak on this particular topic is puzzling, particularly in light of all those in our own athletic department, such as Bill Lundberg or Keith Otterbein, who have been commended for their strong character, and could have lectured on the topic with authority.

Schilling, however, gave the lecture, and throughout it he offered classic bar-room banter; often making the audience laugh with his lowbrow language and slightly off-color stories. Schilling’s lecture, although certainly entertaining, was not centered on character. This is something that could have been foreseen.

While Schilling was a player in the late 1990s and early 2000s he was often called out, by both teammates and the media, for being self-centered. ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez, a 23-year veteran of the industry, criticized Schilling heavily during the 2001 World Series, describing his as “the consummate table for one.”

The antics continued in 2003 when Schilling took a bat to a camera used to evaluate umpire performance after an umpire told Schilling, “I can’t call that pitch a strike, the machine won’t let me.”

Schilling was fined by the MLB and later apologized for his actions.

Even in retirement, Schilling has continued his questionable behavior.

In 2012, Schilling’s game development company 38 Studios declared bankruptcy, costing Schilling $50 million of his own money, which he clearly stated in his lecture. Failure in business, of course, is nothing to hold against a man’s character. In the deal, however, he lost most of a $75 million loan from the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation — a corporation financially backed by the government through tax payers. This fact was notably absent from the lecture.

Perhaps the greatest nail in Schilling’s proverbial coffin came last August when Schilling was suspended from his job at ESPN for tweeting a meme that read, “It’s said only 5-10 percent of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7 percent of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?”

The text was superimposed over a picture of Adolf Hitler and Schilling added, “The math is staggering when you get to true #’s.”

Schilling quickly removed the tweet and issued an apology, but that does not change that the tweet was sent in the first place.

Schilling’s one-game suspension was extended to cover the remainder of the 2015 season after Schilling attacked AwfulAnnouncing.com for the way that it handled coverage of the story. ESPN issued apologies for both the tweet and Schilling’s inappropriate email to AwfulAnnouncing.com.

Even last week, when asked whether he believed Hillary Clinton should be in prison, he said that he believed she “should be buried under a jail.” This comment came after ESPN had requested that all employees stay away from public personal attacks in regards to the upcoming elections.

While none of these things are are overly shameful on their own, all together they raise serious doubt of Schilling’s authority on the topic of “Sports and Character,” especially at a college that holds those associated with it to such a high standard.

When I raised my concerns about Schilling’s selection after the lecture, the External Affairs office declined to comment. It should be noted that, in general, the CCA was highly successful. The speakers delivered a series of entertaining and insightful lectures, which seemed to be well received by the audience. The strength of the other speakers, however, only heightened my disappointment in the selection of Schilling for a lecture on character.

In the sports world, there are many men and women of strong character that are champions of the values promoted by Hillsdale College. On this very campus we have numerous coaches who have been praised for the way that they conduct themselves, and for their ability to cultivate character in their players. Although they may not have the name recognition of Curt Schilling, it would have been better to hear about character from somebody with this kind of reputation, rather than from somebody with a history of questionable actions.