Diehard Q&A: Curt Schilling (Part One)

Editor’s Note: Diehard spoke recently with Red Sox ace Curt Schilling, who spoke to us exclusively and at length about a myriad of topics, including his mentor role with the Sox’ rookie pitchers, the development of young hurlers in general and the challenges he faces as he nears the end of his impressive career. (FREE PREVIEW OF PREMIUM CONTENT!!)

We will be running the Q&A the rest of the week, but the remaining installments will be available only to premium subscribers. Don’t miss out on this fascinating Q&A! Subscribe to diehardmagazine.com today!


Diehard: What kind of advantage do the younger pitchers have here with so many veterans on the staff?

Curt Schilling: It’s all personality-dependent. If you’ve got a veteran who shares information and can teach and can convey messages, it doesn’t do you any good if you’re not a guy that’s wanting to learn, listen and get better. On the other flip side, if you have a veteran who never talks to young pitchers, it doesn’t matter. It all comes down to personality. And we’ve got a great group of young kids who, at times, asked all the right questions. But being a parent, I can tell you that a lot of times—most times—it doesn’t matter what you tell them or how you explain things. Until they go out and experience it, they won’t learn it. And that’s the key: The experience.


DH: How are things different between veterans and rookies now as opposed to when you were first coming up?

CS: Well, when I came up, there wasn’t a lot of [help from veterans]. I think one of the reasons I am as forward and aggressive and open to talking is because there were very few guys when I was younger. If they did it, they did it out of the way. They didn’t want the veterans to see them being nice to the young players. It was all about making the young players pay his dues. Not that that was a bad thing. It was kind of a survival of the fittest among young players: If you could handle the [expletive] and the daily routine of being a young player, then you got through it. But [it] certainly wasn’t conducive to helping you get better at pitching.

There were guys. Jay Tibbs was one. Dave Schmidt and other guys in different ways. But it was—I don’t think as common as it is now.


DH: Where are these young pitchers in their mental development compared to where you were at a similar point in your career?

CS: What you see, feel, think and believe is right now is—when you get 10 years away from it, is so far from what it truly is and what it can be. And nothing can help you accelerate the process. It’s all about innings and taking the ball and experiencing the crowd and the bad stuff. And ultimately, for me, it domes down to how badly they hate losing. If you hate it bad enough, you will do everything in your power to stop it from happening. Or you quit.


DH: Doesn’t everybody at this level hate losing, though?

CS: But I played with guys who, for the four days in between a loss and their next start, [were like] ‘Ehh. I’ll get ‘em next time.’ And I’m usually going on about 45 minutes sleep the day after I pitch if I didn’t pitch well because I’m trying to figure out why I did what I did wrong—how I did what I did wrong and how I can avoid doing it the next time. That’s 3,000 innings into it. I’m still trying to do that.


(Part two of our Q&A with Schilling will appear Wednesday)


Diehard managing editor Jerry Beach can be reached at [e-mail]. To receive a free issue of Diehard, call 888-979-0979.