Father: Son! Can you come in here for a minute.
Son: Coming Dad. [Little boy runs into room, decked out with MLB-approved Curt Schilling jersey]
Father: We have to have a talk. About the game last night…
Son: Yeah! Great comeback!
Father: Well, I really want to talk about Curt.
Son: Sure, he’s my favorite. The man with the bloody sock. He’s awesome.
Father: Well, the thing is, he was awesome. I think we need to really take a look at what he’s done this year.
Son: Aww, Dad. He just had a couple of bad innings, even the guys on the radio said so. Then he shut them down for the next four.
Father: He did keep runs off the board after the second, but son, a lot of those outs he got were long, hard-hit balls. And this is against Tampa Bay…
Son: But the guys on the radio…
Father: Son, sometimes people don’t want to believe what they see. They want something to be true so badly, that they pretend it is. Nobody can take away what Curt did for us last year. And if he never pitches like Curt Schilling again, it makes his sacrifice even more admirable. But the truth is, he just doesn’t have it. His fastball isn’t as fast, his location isn’t as sharp and his splitter…
Son: Mr. Splitty?
Father: Yeah, Mr. Splitty. He’s gone.
Son: But Dad…[a single tear rolls down his cheek]
Father: I know, son. It hurts. But we made it this far without him. We can still win this thing.
