In Monday night’s game 3 of the AL Championship Series, Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer had to make an early exit after his injured pinkie refused to stop gushing blood. In Massachusetts, the gory sight conjured up surprisingly positive memories: it was hard not to think back to Curt Schilling’s starts in game 6 of the 2004 ALCS and game 2 of the World Series. Pitching on a surgically repaired ankle with blood dripping through thick socks, the Red Sox ace stayed in the game, mowing down the offenses of the New York Yankees and then the St Louis Cardinals on the way towards the team’s first championship in 86 years.
Schilling, in essence, was sacrificing his body, risking his entire career, to deliver New England a World Series title many thought they would never live to see. It was such a vivid drama that it could have been the climax of a particularly cringe-worthy Kevin Costner movie, so much so that there remain baseball fans who still believe it was faked. To see Bauer in action was, for Massachusetts residents, to be reminded of the old Curt Schilling, the Schilling who made such a memorable sacrifice to such long-suffering fans.
It was easily the most defining moment in Schilling’s remarkable playing career. So, yesterday, with his 2004 heroics returning to public consciousness, Schilling decided it was the perfect time to make his announcement. “I’ve made my decision,” he said to Boston radio station WRKO, confirming talk that he would run for Senate in 2018, presumably against sitting senator Elizabeth Warren. He did give himself an out, however: “I haven’t talked to Shonda, my wife. And ultimately it’s going to come down to how we feel about our marriage and our kids.”
There was a time when the notion of Senator Curt Schilling (R-MA) seemed like it was possible. In 2009, while still basking in the glow of his Red Sox heroics, his name was bandied about as the Republican candidate in the 2010 special election to replace the late Ted Kennedy. He demurred, saying it wasn’t his time, and the Republicans nominated moderate Scott Brown, who eventually beat out Democratic candidate Martha Coakley on 19 January 2010.
Instead of politics, Schilling was deep into video game developing. In 2011 he moved the company he founded, 38 Studios, from Massachusetts to Rhode Island after securing $75m of taxpayer money. 38 Studios went bust in 2012, a debacle that resulted in a lawsuit filed by Rhode Island, since settled and a fraud investigation by the Rhode Island state police.
Following the failure of 38 Studios, Schilling focused on broadcasting. It went better than his time in gaming, only in that he didn’t make an enemy out of an entire US state this time around. During a stint with ESPN, when Schilling wasn’t arguing with co-workers about evolution, he was using his down time to share increasingly controversial political views and offensive cartoons, most notoriously one comparing Muslims and Nazis. This led to a lengthy suspension, during which he was forced to defend his own Nazi memorabilia collection. His return didn’t last too long. In April of this year, one final meme, this one highly transphobic, ended his tenure at ESPN permanently.
This overdue termination, and his subsequent embrace of his new role of truth-telling conservative martyr, victim of the PC police, hastened his full plunge into politics. The transition hasn’t gone smoothly, even as the political bar for acceptable discourse has plummeted to unfathomable new depths. Most recently, Schilling was defending Donald Trump’s habit of flirting with pre-teens in a way that was creepy even by Trump surrogate standards.
If Schilling makes good on his decision to run for the US Senate, he will till have a significant group of core supporters. The problem is that things like calling for “a version of the Berlin Wall” on the Mexican border, equating Islam straight up with terrorism aren’t going to play very well in heavily liberal-leaning Massachusetts, no matter how many great memories voters have of him striking out Alex Rodriguez.
At this point in his life, Schilling is a failed broadcaster and a businessman who, through either incompetence or deceit, has already screwed over one state in New England. He has gained no specific political experience since he declined to run in 2009 – unless you count his time spent as an unpaid racist meme curator. He’s Trump without without the smarmy charisma that allows Trump to skate away from scandal far more intact than he has any right to be. Instead, Schilling is something more basic. Schilling’s that one uncle on Facebook, just with three World Series rings and access to multiple media outlets.
Scott Brown managed to pull off his special election victory back in 2009 for two reasons. First, Brown, a Republican, was able to position himself as a moderate who appealed to a broad range of voters, an avenue thoroughly closed off to Schilling at this point. Secondly, he was running against a candidate in Martha Coakley who drew lukewarm water levels of enthusiasm, even among registered Democrats. It also didn’t help that she inexplicably called Schilling a “Yankees fan” during her 2009 campaign (this may end up being Schilling’s biggest positive contribution to Massachusetts GOP history.)
Warren, who defeated Brown in the 2012, makes a formidable opponent for any GOP candidate to face – partly because her supporters are so passionate. Warren was popular enough (a 61% popularity rating, according to one recent poll) that there was recent talk that Clinton was considering her as her vice-president. This was opposed by many liberals, not because she would be unsuited for the job, but because they considered her too important to remove from the Senate. In short, Schilling v Warren could end up being an absolute bloodbath. A recent poll showed Warren holding a 19-point lead over Schilling in a hypothetical election.
It’s tempting to say that there’s absolutely no way that Schilling would actually become the GOP nominee, it would be tantamount to party suicide. But after this presidential election, it is foolish to assume that this is the case. In a sane and just world, this wouldn’t end up being anything other than a one-time local hero burning through the last of his goodwill on yet another hopeless scheme. But that might not be the type of world we currently inhabit.
