al notebook
Schilling: Season Over, Career Might Be, Too
In this Oct. 13, 2007 file photo, Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling reacts after giving up a solo home run to Cleveland Indians' Grady Sizemore in the fifth inning of Game 2 of the American League Championship baseball series at Fenway Park in Boston. Schilling says he's out for the season, and his career may be over. The 41-year-old Boston Red Sox right-hander said Friday June 20, 2008 on radio station WEEI he will have shoulder surgery next week. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
(Elise Amendola - AP)
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Red Sox RHP Curt Schilling will have surgery on his ailing shoulder, ending his season and possibly his career.
The 41-year-old will have the operation after a rehabilitation program preferred by the team failed to fix the tendon injury that sparked a spring training dispute between doctors about how to treat it.
"My season is over and there is a pretty decent chance I have thrown my last pitch forever," Schilling said yesterday on WEEI radio in Boston.
Schilling has been out since the start of spring training. His physician, Craig Morgan, confirmed to the Associated Press that he will do the surgery Monday in Wilmington, Del.
"This could conceivably be a career-ending procedure," Morgan said. "We're doing this so that Curt Schilling will have a totally functional, pain-free shoulder for the rest of his life."
"Coming back from this surgery at 31 would be an enormous challenge, at 41 more so," Schilling wrote on his blog, 38pitches.com. " . . . I won't come back throwing 85 [mph]. . . . If there is not an option to come back and be good, I won't."
· GASTON TAKES OVER BLUE JAYS : Toronto dipped into its past to shake up a last-place team, firing Manager John Gibbons and replacing him with two-time World Series winner Cito Gaston.
The Blue Jays, as the Mets and Mariners did earlier in the week, decided it's far easier to fire the manager than it is to overhaul a disappointing team close to midseason. Despite having five players making $10 million or more on its opening day roster, Toronto is 35-40 with six consecutive losses.
"We've underachieved at this point with a good club," GM J.P. Ricciardi said.
Gaston will manage the rest of the season and then be evaluated, Ricciardi said.
While Gaston managed the Blue Jays to World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, he hasn't managed since being fired in 1997. He'd been the team's special assistant to the president and chief executive since 2002.
The Blue Jays lost Gaston's debut, against Pittsburgh, 1-0, in 12 innings. In the game, Toronto ace Roy Halladay got a scare, but apparently wasn't injured, when he was struck in the right temple by Nyjer Morgan's line drive in the seventh inning.
· BEDARD LEAVES GAME EARLY: Starting pitcher Erik Bedard left Seattle's game in the third inning due to back spasms.
Bedard gave up only two hits but appeared to be in discomfort while leaving the field following the third. The Mariners said he suffered back spasms in his right side. The severity of the injury was not immediately known.
-- From News Services
