All talk -- but no action

But while Sox CEO Larry Lucchino, who accompanied Epstein on his mission to lobby Schilling, was planning to fly to San Diego last night, Epstein apparently isn't going anywhere. He'd checked into a Phoenix hotel, and in all likelihood would remain encamped until he either had a deal or the 5 p.m. Friday deadline for Schilling to make a decision had passed.

"There were two sessions at Schilling's house," Lucchino told his spokesman, Charles Steinberg. "We made a proposal and meetings and/or conversations will continue through the holiday."

The other interested party in the decision, the Arizona Diamondbacks, also were awaiting word on whether Schilling had agreed to a trade in which they would acquire big league pitchers Brandon Lyon and Casey Fossum, plus prospects Jorge de la Rosa and Michael Goss, in exchange for the righthanded half of the tandem (Randy Johnson is the lefthanded half) that pitched the Diamondbacks to a World Series title in 2001 but had been deemed too expensive to keep.

Joe Garagiola Jr., the general manager of the Diamondbacks, said last night he had not spoken with the Red Sox.

"No, I didn't hear anything," said Garagiola, whose trade with the Sox is contingent on Schilling waiving his no-trade clause by tomorrow.

It would not surprise him, he said, if Schilling did not announce his decision until the end of the negotiating window Major League Baseball had granted the Sox.

"It's a big decision," Garagiola said by phone. "I'm sure he's looking at it as potentially the last contract he might sign. He's going to think about it. Frankly, I expect it'll be around 3 o'clock [Arizona time] when he announces his decision."

Normally, MLB grants teams a 72-hour window in which to broker a deal involving a player with a no-trade clause. But because of Thanksgiving, Schilling essentially received an extra day to make a decision he said will not be financially driven. He is due $12 million next season in the last year of his contract with Arizona, and said he wants to pitch until he's 40. There were previous indications he was seeking a three-year extension, but Schilling said Monday that wasn't necessarily the case.

Epstein said little after emerging from Schilling's home in Paradise Valley -- an exclusive enclave in the Phoenix area -- refusing even to confirm whether he and Lucchino had sat down to lunch with Schilling and his wife, Shonda.

"I can't talk about anything," Epstein said by phone. "None of us are until this is over."

Schilling did not immediately respond to a phone message left at his home last night. One Sox executive said last night that the club did not expect a decision until tomorrow.

Trading for Schilling would rate as a major coup for Epstein, not only because Schilling would give the Sox another top-of-the-rotation ace to go along with four-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez and 20-game winner (in 2002) Derek Lowe, but because Schilling was a prime offseason target of the rival Yankees. The Yankees, seeking to replace the retiring Roger Clemens, made overtures for Schilling during the general managers' meetings, and Schilling had said the Yankees were one of the teams he would be willing to go to in a trade. But the Diamondbacks and Yankees were unable to agree on terms of a trade -- there were reports that the Diamondbacks wanted Alfonso Soriano or Nick Johnson, and the Yankees apparently couldn't offer a package of young talent/prospects equal to what the Sox were offering.