Schilling Blogs His Almost-No-Hitter

Check out this post, from www.38pitches.com. Schilling's perspective is always really interesting, but the play-by-play recollection of pitching this game so close to the evasive no-hitter is just fascinating. Schilling can be an ass at times--which I like--but what makes him one of my favorite baseball players ever is stuff like this:

Our ninth ends rather quick, which is nice, and I stroll out for the final inning. Sox Nation is way into it, I can hear them, which is cool. I am also thinking about a few thousand or so friends of mine that I know are tuned in. 30+ thousand ALS patients, a lot of which I know follow my starts, that are probably as nervous as anyone. My son Gehrig, who just this week had thrown a five inning no-hitter. My Yavapai teammates that I am going to be seeing in Phoenix, my little league coaches, as a group I am wondering what’s going through their minds as I am warming up. One of the greatest things about doing what I do for a living is knowing how much these games mean to people that have helped me get to this point, that so many of them do live and die with every pitch we throw. The fact that God gave me the ability to impact peoples lives in this way is something you wish everyone had a chance to experience.

Schilling may shoot his mouth off at times, but he has grown into a guy who really gets what it means to be a major-league ballplayer, on the field, off the field, and in society.