Stan Grossfeld of the Boston Globe interviewed Keith Foulke in a piece that ran today. I enjoy Grossfeld’s feature pieces — they’re enjoyable to read, and this one is no exception. It’s great to hear from Foulke, and I’ll always consider his 2004 postseason effort unmatched by any reliever.
Foulke lost his closer’s job in 2005 amid injuries. He stuck as a solid middle reliever for the Sox in 2006, then signed with the Cleveland Indians before retiring in spring training due to injuries. He could have stuck it out and collected his money, but chose not to. He then came back with the Athletics last year, again being a solid reliever. No calls occurred this winter, so he’s up in Newark, pitching for an independent team that has Carl Everett at DH.
Some choice excerpts:
He doesn’t blame anyone but himself for his free fall in 2005, when he lost his closer job in Boston. He says that Dr. Thomas Gill, medical director for the Red Sox, examined his knees the first day of spring training and recommended immediate surgery.
“I told him, ‘No, I’m not doing that,’ ” says Foulke. “To this day, it’s one of the worst decisions I ever made, to fight through it, because it basically took the next three years of my career.”
In the same piece, he would say that after the 2004 World Series, he was barely able to climb the stairs due to his knees being so bad. He then asked that information not be published, trying not to make excuses.
About walking away from the game and turning down $5 million…
Foulke says he doesn’t want to compare himself with Curt Schilling, who accepted $8 million from the Sox last year and never pitched an inning because of shoulder problems.
“He’s got to wake up and look himself in the mirror every day,” says Foulke.
You know, this brings up an interesting question. Should Schilling have retired and saved the Sox $8 million or was he right in trying to rehabilitate his injuries and see if he can return to the game?
It’s a sticky choice, and we all know what Schilling chose. I don’t think it has anything to do with integrity, to be honest. It doesn’t reflect badly on Schilling or any other ballplayer that makes that choice. Sure, it reflects well on Foulke, but I wouldn’t let it demean other players. They are giving their life and body to the game, and if it’s injured in the process… well, that’s part of the risk both sides take. It’s a two-way street.
To me, the bottom line is that Foulke made an incredible gesture in walking away from the money — a gesture he didn’t have to make. Both parties were aware of his injury problems. He could have decided to stick with the team, rehabilitate and see if he could return the latter part of the year. He didn’t.
Schilling chose to stick with the team, rehabilitate and see if he could make a comeback the following year. Putting it in that light makes Schilling out to be a bad guy, and maybe he should be made out that way, but I just don’t think it’s right to make him a bad guy.
Look what Schilling pitched through in the 2004 postseason for us. He was healthy and had full plans of pitching in 2008 before things changed. He didn’t retire from the game because he wasn’t ready to. Foulke was, and then unretired. The situations are both similar and different at the same time.
What do you think? Should Schilling (and other players) walk away from a contract and retire if injuries destroy their chance to help a team?
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If a player has a strong feeling they won’t pitch, they shouldn’t sign the contract. Get healthy, then give it a whirl. That doesn’t mean players don’t do it, and Schilling may very well have believed that he could pitch in 2008. But he may have believed that he couldn’t pitch also. I guess we will never know…
I think it is wrong to misrepresent yourself and go into a contract under false pretense, but if you’re injured after the fact (and with aging players this is especially true) the team knowingly took a risk. Unless a contract has an injury clause the player shouldn’t be required to give the money back, or even looked down on if they don’t. That being said it was admirable that Foulke didn’t believe in receiving money for services not rendered.
I’ve said before that I believe Schilling knew that he wasn’t 100% before signing the contract and signed it anyways. And I definitely admire Foulke for what he did, especially essentially sacrificing his career to help win the 2004 WS. He’s really become one of the forgotten guys from that team and he deserves a lot more credit than he gets.
I love the line about Schilling having to look at himself in the mirror every morning.
Well, I guess all that charity work will offset the possibility of Schilling signing that contract with the knowledge that he probably wouldn’t pitch. :)
I also believe Schilling knew he was not 100%. But I also believe he genuinely thoght he could recover and pitch. His condition was no secret for Boston, and the FO signed him because they belive the same thing. The things simply don’t worked as planned, and he couldn’t recover as he and Boston expected.
I simply don’t see any reason to asume bad faith.
Remember, too, that Schilling and his doc wanted immediate surgery so he could return at the end of 2008 and pitch, but agreed to the Sox medical approach of R&R, which didn’t work despite his best efforts. He was there in the dugout and clubhouse all year. Who knows the level of advice and inspiration he provided our younger pitchers..
He was planning to come back to the game even in 2009, and finally gave it up. His $8MM contract didn’t prevent the Sox from bringing in Byrd or Colon or anyone else, or bringing up Buchholz, Bowden, Masterson. I would still love to see Schill on the mound at the end of this year, though it won’t happen. In the meantime, let’s enjoy our heroes. Schill stayed loyal to the team.
And if Foulke’s rehab is doing well, the Sox would be wise to sign him to a minor league contract to see what happens. Some relief appearances in September at Fenway might be good medicine for everyone.
Papi, Veritek, Wake, Youk are all we have left of 2004. I wouldn’t have minded expanding that list to Millar, Lowe, and now Foulk, and bringing Timlin back as a coach.
Curt Schilling signed his final contract with the Sox 12 days after winning his third post-season game of the year. I’m constantly amazed at the number of people who believe that Schilling was able to determine during those 12 days that he would go from World Series winning pitcher to never being able to pitch again.
If you go back and read his blog posts from the end of the WS up through the posts on his surgery, I think you definitely see a man who thought he would pitch better in 2008 than 2007, who believed the team’s decision hurt his chances to do so, but who, at the time the contact locked in, was no where near ready to give up on his chance to help the team win in 2008.
Well put. Disinformation, and emotional response to it, are the curses of the internet. Thank you for reminding us of the facts.