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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Curt Schilling logged into a bulletin board for serious Red Sox fans (I was going to say hard-core fans, but I'm in the wrong crowd here) before he signed his deal. The Sports Guy describes:

On Thanksgiving night, Schilling submitted a lengthy post on the Red Sox message board on MLB.com, then chatted with Sox fans until the wee hours on another Sox message board called "The Sons of Sam Horn" (SOSH).

Now ...

I'm a longtime member of SOSH, a den for diehards that weeds out weaker members and has 250-post threads on subjects like "Does Casey Fossum's delivery point seem different to you?" and "One Man's Thoughts on Nomar's Last 500 At-Bats, In Order." These guys know more than me; I'll freely admit it. During this past year in California, I clicked on SOSH twice a day for breaking Sox news (if something happens, SOSH usually has a thread going within about 1.23 seconds). Believe me, I'm not defending message boards -- they can be evil places, especially in the wrong hands -- but some of them aren't that bad. And SOSH isn't that bad.

An admitted internet junkie hoping to get a handle on Sox fans, Schilling couldn't have picked a better place. He stumbled into a SOSH chat room at 2:30 in the morning and found about 20 fans in there, which is my favorite part of the story -- only the guys from SOSH would be chatting about the Sox at 2:30 A.M. on Thanksgiving night. After he introduced himself, they verified his identity with a barrage of questions, then spent the rest of their time pleading for him to come to Boston. He ended up staying in the chat room past 4 o'clock, talking about anything and everything. I'm not making this up.

The next day was even stranger: After Schilling landed a SOSH account and word spread with the members, Friday afternoon -- the deadline for Schilling to accept his Boston trade -- turned into a pitch session from the SOSH members to Schilling. Everyone had their say. Hell, I was on vacation in Santa Barbara, and I ended up posting something (much to the chagrin of the Sports Gal, and I can't emphasize this strongly enough).

Here's what I posted:

Motivated by the fans? Drops 500 large on the team's charity? Please welcome the anti-Roger Clemens.
"Thank God for Sosh. This is fantastic. I'm anxiously awaiting the official dawning of the Curt Schilling Era in Boston. Curt, if you're reading this, part of the beauty of this board is that there isn't a single person here who feels like their life would be complete until the Sox win the World Series. It's pathetic, it's endearing, and it's true. We would love to have you aboard."

I felt like I had to say something, I guess. Since Schilling solicited SOSH's input in the first place, there was a decent chance that these posts were helping him make a difficult decision -- he knows his place in history, that pitching for a Boston championship team could push him into the Hall of Fame. But he didn't know anything about the fans. So I wanted to do my part. And yes, I realize how ridiculous this sounds. But you never know.

Now here's where it gets crazy. The deadline comes ... and Schilling accepts the trade. Better yet, he specifically mentions the passion of the SOSH guys as one of the main reasons he decided to play in Boston. Unbelievable. Can you remember any other instance of fans directly influencing a player like this? Can you remember any other player seeking out the input of fans like this? I mean, unless you're a Yankees fan, how can you not root for Curt Schilling now? Shouldn't every player be like this? And if they were like this, wouldn't you like sports a little more than you already do?


I'm trying to think what the analogue would be here, but I'm not sure who the right person would be. Candidates?