Move over Tiger Woods...
Curt Schilling revealed this morning that he will have season-ending surgery on his right shoulder on Monday, saying there was a "pretty decent chance that I've thrown my last pitch forever."
The Red Sox righthander made the disclosure during his weekly interview on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show, sounding very much like a player whose career could be over. He said the major procedure (he wasn't sure exactly what type of surgery it would be) would be performed in Philadelphia by Dr. Craig Morgan, who thought Schilling should have chosen surgery in the offseason rather than the rehab program recommended by the Red Sox. When asked if this meant that Dr. Morgan's initial analysis of the injury and rehab was correct, Schilling replied, "I don't know ... and I don't care.
"There's a chance a lot of things could happen here. My season's over. There's a pretty decent chance that I've thrown my last pitch forever, so I don't care. It doesn't matter. I'm going in to make it not hurt anymore, which is pretty much all I care about."
After experiencing a setback last week, Schilling returned to Boston ahead of the team to see Sox medical director Thomas Gill to discuss where to go next in his efforts to rehabilitate his ailing right shoulder. His last throwing session, Friday in Cincinnati, did not go well -- Red Sox manager Francona called it a "plateau". This morning, Schilling explained what went wrong.
"Painful," Schilling replied when asked to characterize the setbacks he's faced. "I never could get past a certain stage. The analogy I use to explain to people where I was at was if you use a scale of 1-to-10, and 10 is pitching in a big-league game, I'm at about a 3 right now. And if you use a pain scale from 1 to 10, I'm probably at a 1 to 2 from a discomfort standpoint. When I try to make the move in effort from 3 to 4, my pain goes from 1 to 2 to 7 or 8."
Strengthening the shoulder wasn't the issue, Schilling explained on the radio this morning.
"I got strong," Schilling said. "Everybody involved is very pleased and in Dr. Morgan's case, ecstatic with the amount of strength that I have in my shoulder. I remember making the comment a couple of months ago, my fear was that I'd get strong and be able to do all this awesome strength stuff but at the end of the day I wouldn't be able to pitch, and that's kind of what happened. Functionally my shoulder is incredibly strong.
From a rehabilitation standpoint if there isn't career-ending damage, I'm in an incredibly good position to have surgery, but I can't throw a pitch. And when you're a pitcher, that's a problem."
Boston Globe..
Curt Schilling revealed this morning that he will have season-ending surgery on his right shoulder on Monday, saying there was a "pretty decent chance that I've thrown my last pitch forever."
The Red Sox righthander made the disclosure during his weekly interview on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show, sounding very much like a player whose career could be over. He said the major procedure (he wasn't sure exactly what type of surgery it would be) would be performed in Philadelphia by Dr. Craig Morgan, who thought Schilling should have chosen surgery in the offseason rather than the rehab program recommended by the Red Sox. When asked if this meant that Dr. Morgan's initial analysis of the injury and rehab was correct, Schilling replied, "I don't know ... and I don't care.
"There's a chance a lot of things could happen here. My season's over. There's a pretty decent chance that I've thrown my last pitch forever, so I don't care. It doesn't matter. I'm going in to make it not hurt anymore, which is pretty much all I care about."
After experiencing a setback last week, Schilling returned to Boston ahead of the team to see Sox medical director Thomas Gill to discuss where to go next in his efforts to rehabilitate his ailing right shoulder. His last throwing session, Friday in Cincinnati, did not go well -- Red Sox manager Francona called it a "plateau". This morning, Schilling explained what went wrong.
"Painful," Schilling replied when asked to characterize the setbacks he's faced. "I never could get past a certain stage. The analogy I use to explain to people where I was at was if you use a scale of 1-to-10, and 10 is pitching in a big-league game, I'm at about a 3 right now. And if you use a pain scale from 1 to 10, I'm probably at a 1 to 2 from a discomfort standpoint. When I try to make the move in effort from 3 to 4, my pain goes from 1 to 2 to 7 or 8."
Strengthening the shoulder wasn't the issue, Schilling explained on the radio this morning.
"I got strong," Schilling said. "Everybody involved is very pleased and in Dr. Morgan's case, ecstatic with the amount of strength that I have in my shoulder. I remember making the comment a couple of months ago, my fear was that I'd get strong and be able to do all this awesome strength stuff but at the end of the day I wouldn't be able to pitch, and that's kind of what happened. Functionally my shoulder is incredibly strong.
From a rehabilitation standpoint if there isn't career-ending damage, I'm in an incredibly good position to have surgery, but I can't throw a pitch. And when you're a pitcher, that's a problem."
Boston Globe..
