Story Time With Curt Schilling

In honor of the MLB draft, Curt Schilling has decided to turn yesterday's entry on his blog into an "Ode To Nostalgia."  With the old timey days clearly on his mind, Curt reminisces:

Draft Day, 1986 (AKA the last January Draft ever). So there I am, sitting in the hallway of the men's dorm at Yavapai Junior College. Why you might ask? Because the draft has started, and I have heard I'm potentially getting drafted.

Curt proceeds with his tale, building anticipation and pulling on our heart strings all the while:

I sat by the phone all morning long, into the afternoon. I waited, waited, and waited some more. I had known all winter I was on "the list", but I had no idea who's list, and where.

At last, as with every good story, the dénouement:

Worst part is I can't even remember the phone call. I know it came in the afternoon sometime, and it was the Red Sox. Red Sox???

Then, of course, the anti-climax -- if his inability to remember the phone call that changed his life forever isn't anti-climax enough.  Apparently, following the forgotten phone call came an even less notable event: the contract negotiation.  Or, rather, "negotiation."

I'd love to tell you this long drawn out story about negotiations, but it didn't happen. Baseball was all I knew, and all I wanted. I signed less than an hour after the game ended. I vaguely remember Mr. Boone calling me and letting me know they were going to offer me 15K to sign, and I came back and said I wanted 25K, and he said "Good luck in college next year."

That was the extent of the negotiations.

I signed right then and there.

All told, it was well played. That $10 K extra was probably of little consequence to Curt.

Curt concludes his story the only way that seems appropriate given that it's so sentimental -- like a country bumpkin.  (Sentimentality must have, it seems, originated in the country.)  He blogs:

The next day I was packed, and on a plane to the lovely city of Elmira, New York, and my career began about two weeks later in my first professional start of my career, against the St. Catherine's Blue Jays.

Not really all that glamorous, but man it was to me.

Bright lights, green monster.