OPEN MIC: Curt Schilling Q&A

Arizona right-hander has been among baseball¿s finest performers, both on the field and off of it. Over a decade has passed since Schilling, the 2001 World Series co-Most Valuable Player, and his wife Shonda founded ¿Curt¿s Pitch for ALS,¿ a charitable fund-raising organization to help in the search for a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig¿s Disease.

Since the organization¿s founding, Schilling¿s work and generosity have helped to raise nearly $3 million for the disease¿s research and treatment. The hurler¿s latest effort to strike out ALS comes in the form of 3DO¿s ultra-realistic High Heat Baseball 2004 video game, which Schilling endorses with a portion of all proceeds going to Curt¿s Pitch.

FOXSports.com caught up with Schilling to discuss the video game, his tireless charity work, a new and unique piece of his off-season training regimen and just why he refuses to face National League West teams during the Cactus League season.

We understand this offseason you¿ve incorporated martial arts training into your regimen? How did that come about?

I started the martial arts because my wife, who was pregnant with our fourth child, her physician is a fifth-degree black belt in judo. He had mentioned something about martial arts to me, and about ten days after the end of the season I asked him if he¿d be interested in working with me.

We started doing it about five days a week, and I just became obsessed with it. It¿s something I¿m very, very glad I did.

So you¿re moving up in rank? Where are you at right now?

Yup. I¿m past the beginning, let¿s put it that way. (laughs)

Do you think that added work might benefit your pitching this season in some way?

Oh, there¿s no question, it already has. I can feel a huge physical difference coming into this season. There¿s a lot of different things that come with it, moving up belt ranks like I have. You start to realize that it¿s not really the belt color that matters, it¿s the practice, the work. It¿s something I¿m enjoying.

Have you recommended martial arts training to anyone?

I¿d recommend it to everyone. You¿ve got to have time; you¿ve got to have somebody to teach you. You get into it for a lot of different reasons, but it¿s after you get into it that you find out you got into it for all the wrong reasons.

You¿ve been insistent upon not facing the NL West teams during the Cactus League schedule. Are you working on any surprises that the should be looking out for in that opening series?

No, not really. My insistence to not pitch against NL West teams is only because of the unbalanced schedule.

We play them 19 times a season, I¿m going to see them probably a minimum of four or five times a year. I don¿t need spring training to see who these guys are and what they do; I already know. I¿ve faced them probably close to 30 starts the last two years against the NL West.

I do a lot of preparation, so I¿m ready for them even if I don¿t see them all spring. There are things I do like to do, changes I like to make in the spring, and I¿d rather them not see that until it matters. Once the season starts, I can do the things I need to do, and I can make the pitches I need to make, and if I do things that throw people off and I¿m throwing the ball 95 miles per hour, it¿s a good combination.

Plus, you¿ve got a massive video archive of NL hitters on CD to review.

Yeah. Well, that¿s everything I do, is watching video and preparing for these games. I don¿t need spring training to see these teams. I¿d rather pitch against other major league teams - as the schedule¿s worked out, I¿ve seen a couple of minor league teams this spring ¿ but I¿ll be ready for these guys.

The ¿ rotation looks a little different this year, with rookie and former reliever joining the mix. How have they looked to you this spring?

Fantastic. I think Patty, if he stays healthy, is going to have a chance to win a whole lot of games. I think he¿ll be right up there with the other guys for Rookie of the Year.

BK looks fine. He¿s made the adjustment well, and now it just comes down there to going out every fifth day and getting them out.

But the big question is, are Kim¿s strange sleeping habits getting any closer to normal? (Kim has been sleeping everywhere from the locker room and trainer¿s room to buses and planes, so much so that the nicknamed him ¿The Lion,¿ as in the 1960s hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight.")

Oh, no. BK will never be normal. He would legitimately sleep 20 hours of the day if we¿d allow him to. I guess out of 24, that¿s OK though.

Curt Remarks

Watch video of Curt on Monday's "Best Damn Sports Show Period" Some Schilling highlights from the show: On taking up pilates: It really does work. The hard part is getting past looking really really stupid for the first week or two while you are doing it. I did it in my basement and after my wife got done laughing at me a couple times, I decided it was something I needed to do. On Hall of Fame ambitions: It is hard to even think that way when I look two lockers over and see a guy with 17,000 strikeouts sitting next to me. is what I consider to be a Hall of Famer... Being around Randy the last two years has pushed me to a level I would have never been at had I not been able to butt heads with him on a consistent basis and beat him routinely on the golf course. On the anti-war protests occurring throughout the country: The bottom line is that if the people who are protesting had voted, maybe there would be a different President in office. But the fact of the matter is if you didn't vote, shut up and wave the flag. If you did vote, you could voice your displeasure, but we, as Americans, need to stick up for the men and women that are fighting for us around the world.

You¿re getting older now (37 this year), but still at the top of your game (last season, Schilling recorded 20-plus wins for the second straight year and registered 313 strikeouts). Have you discussed with your family how much longer they¿d like you to keep on pitching?

Not really. The last couple of years have taught us to focus on what¿s important now, worry about the rest later and see where that takes us.

Onto the game... can you tell us a little bit about High Heat 2004?

I got involved about two years ago after lengthy discussions about how my involvement would go along, and after a financial agreement that all proceeds I was getting from the sales would be going to ALS, it was pretty easy.

They¿ve been incredibly receptive to my input, and very driven to make the most realistic baseball game they could for an arcade game. The progression in the last 18 months has been phenomenal.

You¿re well known as an avid computer user. Are you also an avid video game enthusiast?

Yeah, yeah ¿ not as avid as I am for my computer, but that¿s because of my schedule now. I¿ve tried to look at everything from a hardcore gamer¿s perspective, as far as what I think is good and what I think is bad.

So you¿ve played the game. How does ¿s performance behind the controls compare to his performance on the mound in real life?

It depends on the day. (laughs) You know what, it depends; the more you play it, the better you get. The great thing about it is that it¿s a game ¿ I don¿t care how much you play ¿ you couldn¿t perfect.

It¿s on that realistic level that you¿re just going to have bad days. There¿s very few arcade games out there that you can¿t master. There are ways that you can figure out most sports games to beat the system, and having a game that you can play yourself against the AI and still not master, that¿s an impressive feat, I think.

You and your wife Shonda have been very active and generous in working to help find a cure for ALS. How rewarding is it to point your efforts toward such a worthwhile cause?

Like I said, when we first began this relationship, one of my stipulations was that however the finances worked out, ALS would be the beneficiary of the dollars. They went overboard to accommodate us. There¿s a splash on the packages mentioning Curt¿s Pitch on the front and back, and there¿s a card inside.

It¿s a unique relationship, and it¿s rare ¿ the only one out there that I know of. It¿s just kind of grown, and now that the game is available on every game system this year, it means more unit sales and more money.

A lot of guys get involved in this kind of stuff because it's pretty good income, but I¿m making more than enough money with my day job. This is just a chance to create a lot of awareness and to be with a company that has a tremendous reputation.

How much money have you raised through the game?

Close to $100,000 last year, and that¿s a portion of proceeds, obviously. But we only had three gaming platforms last year, so that¿s pretty cool.

You have three children who are getting close to the age where they can play these games. Do they understand how rare it is to have a dad who¿s on the cover of the game?

My oldest son Gehrig is seven, and that was probably the pinnacle of my coolness in our house, last year when the game first showed up and I was on the cover. To him, that was the end-all, be-all: that was way bigger than winning the World Series.

He likes it, and the funny thing is that he was big into playing baseball video games for a long, long time. Then, this comes out, and obviously it was a huge deal for him. It was pretty cool.

About the Game: 3DO¿s High Heat 2004 will be available just in time for Opening Day on the PC, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, XBox and Game Boy Advance. For more info, visit the High Heat Web site at http://www.3do.com/highheat/2004/.

About ALS: 30,000 people are currently living with ALS, a motor neuron disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. In all cases, the disease is fatal, and there is currently no cure. For more info, visit the ALS Association Web site at http://www.alsa.org.

Bryan Hoch is a contributing writer to FOXSports.com. He can be contacted at bryanhoch@yahoo.com.