Schilling upbeat after workout
Having lost about 6 pounds, and gained a fuzzy goatee, Curt Schilling showed up at Fenway Park yesterday, 16 days after his last known visit.
After throwing a 15-minute bullpen session, an upbeat Schilling said, ''I have a goal, I want to be back before the All-Star break," then went on to proclaim himself ''as excited as I've been since I got to Florida [for spring training]."
All indications suggest Schilling will pitch batting practice Monday in Cleveland, throw a side session Wednesday, then make a rehab start next Saturday (Triple A Pawtucket is at Richmond).
''I imagine I'd probably have to make a couple starts in the minor leagues," Schilling said.
Sox medical director Thomas Gill, who had last evaluated Schilling May 31, examined the ace yesterday and said he has ''great motion, much improved, and his strength is excellent. His ankle is almost completely non-tender. He reports that his strength and his balance were much better than before he left."
Gill is working with Schilling to schedule an appointment for the pitcher to return to Massachusetts General Hospital's biomotion lab, though that's unlikely to happen until June 27 or 28. On May 31, Gill tested Schilling's surgically repaired right ankle at the lab, and using force plates, was able to obtain an objective reading of the power Schilling could generate.
''We got some very interesting data looking at which tendons are working well, which muscles seem to be working well, which joints seem to be contributing to this," Gill said. ''We've compared him to his opposite ankle and we also compared him to a group of population norms. We're eager to get him back to the lab to see the differences.
''It's not so much a number as a comparison. To say he started at X and is, for example, 30 percent plus X. It's a way we can demonstrate that the rehab we are doing is proper."
Schilling wore yet another doctored cleat yesterday. The shoe he wore a few weeks ago featured significant heel support. Yesterday's model was effectively a high-top version of his usual Reebok cleat.
''It's a transitional kind of device," Gill said. ''My guess is that he'll continue to get stronger and he'll eventually get rid of it."
Schilling, who in late May said he might pitch with an altered shoe all season, is now saying, ''It's not something I'm going to take out in the game with me. The goal is to go back with nothing."
But that doesn't mean he'll be 100 percent healthy. The prevailing sense is that Schilling will become healthier, stronger, and more effective as the season goes on. But he won't have full strength in the ankle until next season.
''I don't know that at this age you're ever completely healed," he said. ''I don't imagine that some of the stuff down there will be 100 percent healed for another year or so, but I don't know that has to be for me to pitch and be normal. I don't think it does.
''This has been probably the hardest, since spring training, the hardest couple months of my professional career, given what happened last year and the expectations coming in."
Well connected
What do Wade Boggs and David Eckstein have in common? Entering Thursday's games, Eckstein, the Cardinals' leadoff hitter and former Sox prospect, had swung at 449 pitches this season and made contact all but 19 times. That calculates to contact on all but 4.2 percent of his swings, the lowest percentage in the big leagues since Boggs, with the 1992 Red Sox, swung and missed only 4.2 percent of the time . . . Last night's game between the Sox and Pirates marked the first time the organizations have met in Boston since the inaugural World Series, a best-of-nine event in 1903. The Sox, then known as the Boston Americans, clinched the Series when Boston's Bill Dinneen struck out Honus Wagner to end Game 8 at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in a mere 1 hour 35 minutes. Wagner produced as many errors (six) in the series as hits . . . Fans attending tomorrow's game are asked to bring new or used baseball and softball equipment to be donated to area youth organizations. Recipients include the Boys and Girls Clubs of Worcester and Lawrence, the Murphy School in Dorchester, Kids with Disabilities in Sports, Cross Roads for Kids, Girls Inc., Sandra's Lodge, and the Pacific Rim Charter School in Hyde Park. Fans donating equipment will have the chance to win Sox tickets, memorabilia, and other prizes . . . John Olerud had Jim Rice sign a bat for his dad as a Father's Day gift . . . Today will be Tim Wakefield's first start against the Pirates, the club he broke into the big leagues with in 1992 and pitched for in 1993 before being released April 20, 1995. He signed with the Sox six days later and has been with them ever since . . . The intentional walk Manny Ramírez received in the eighth inning was his first of the season. A year ago, Ramírez had 15, tying him for second in the American League. In 2003, he led the league with 28 . . . The Sox have had 14 games decided in the last at-bat. They've won eight . . . The Sox (37-29) are back to eight games over .500, tying a season high. They were previously 21-13 and 22-14 . . . Bill Mueller's RBI triple in the fourth was his first triple in 93 games, dating to Aug. 18 against Toronto.
