Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on what you are thankful for.  Perhaps Curt Schilling and Theo Epstein are thinking of their Thanksgiving day fleece 4 years ago that got Curt Schilling in red socks.

It was Thanksgiving day 2003, and Theo Epstein, among other Red Sox brass, had traveled to Arizona to feast with the Schillings and to convince Curt that Boston was the right place for  him.   Boston and Arizona had already agreed on the principles of the trade - Arizona would receive left handed pitcher Casey Fossum and righty Brandon Lyon - but the Red Sox had a short window to work out a contract extension with Schilling or else the deal would die.  As documented in a very interesting post on Mr. Schilling’s personal blog, negotiations were very intense, and Epstein and Schilling both left their Thanksgiving meal feeling a deal would not be worked out.   But alas, the official deal and fleece of Arizona was completed, with Schilling receiving a 2 year extension worth $25M with a 3rd year option worth $13M per year.   Lyon and Fossum have not had prestigious D’Back careers.

As we all know by now, the Schilling acquisition was a major piece that lifted the Red Sox over the proverbial hump and got them past the Yankees.   We all know the bloody sock story, when Schilling heroically lifted the Sox over the Yankees in game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, helping the Sox eventually come back from a 3 game deficit in that series.  Schilling would then help the Sox win their first World Series in 86 years that year, and of course, this year the Sox won another title, fulfilling Curt Schilling’s desire.  Schilling had said the day after Thanksgiving in 2003:  “I want to be a part of bringing the first World Series in modern history to Boston.  And hopefully more than one over the next four years.”

Filed under: Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, _A Look Back