Members of the Boston Red Sox’ 2004 World Series championship team took the field to throw out ceremonial first pitches before Game 2 of the World Series. Notably, Curt Schilling wasn’t among them and it turns out the team didn’t invite him.
Among the invitees, Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield, David Ortiz, Kevin Millar and Jason Varitek attended and took part as the team and fans honored many of the players who brought a title to Boston in 2004.
Boston never reached out to Schilling, who lives in the area and played a critical role in the team’s championship run.
Ceremonial first pitch tonight: 2004 team members David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Kevin Millar, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Keith Foulke, Alan Embree.
No Curt Schilling, who lives locally?
Red Sox exec: "We did not reach out to him, but it is not out of spite.''— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) October 24, 2018
Schilling addressed the absence of an invite on Facebook on Thursday morning in a long post detailing why he believes he wasn’t invited and said it was expected and 100 percent on purpose by the organization.
In recent years, Schilling has posted messages promoting the lynching of journalists and was fired by ESPN for intolerant behavior on social media.
Given all of the attention being focused on the World Series between teams in two of the largest media markets in the country on the biggest stage, the Red Sox clearly made a decision to avoid negative attention being taken away from the World Series.