Blood is Thicker

Announcer Gary Thorne stirred up a firestorm of controversy when he stated on-air that the famed Curt Schilling bloody sock episode was actually faked. He claimed that a teammate of Schilling's had told him that it was actually paint and not blood on the sock. The press latched on to the story and pretty soon denials, retractions and challenges were flying. Thorne retracted his statement after speaking to the teammate of Schilling stating that he misunderstood what was said. The teammate insisted that he never said such a thing and Schilling issued a challenge on his website of a million dollars to anyone who could prove that the stain was not blood.

The sock now resides in Cooperstown as part of the their memorabilia collection. They have no plans to have the sock tested and I can't imagine under what circumstances that would actually take place. I have never doubted that the sock had blood on it, I always doubted whether the blood was from his incision actually bleeding through the sock. It seems to me that Curt Schilling would be just the kind of player to try and make his actions seem more heroic by using his own blood to create the appearance of a bleeding wound. Here's my point, even if the wound was still bleeding, there are certainly ways to make sure that the blood does not seep through to your clothing. I've been cut before, but I usually don't show up with blood seeping through my clothes. If the bloody sock were tested, I have no doubt that the test would come back with Curt's blood on it. He did have surgery that week and I'm fairly sure that there was some blood present. How much blood I can't say.

I'm not a Doctor and I don't even play one on TV, so I can't really comment on the state of the ankle of Curt Schilling at the time of the creation of the sock in question. Actually given the fact that Curt isn't exactly a beloved baseball player, I'm pretty sure that if that were some substance other than blood on his sock, it would have gotten out by now. So Curt, you can relax and be assured that no one is going to step forward to accept your million dollar challenge. Your legacy and bloody sock are safe for now. Also your reputation as a loud mouth, attention hog is well intact.