Schilling Diagnosed with Cancer

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Hoplite

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Oct 26, 2013
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Dan Murfman said:
 
 
Well it's not as bad as his first I don't mean to be insensitive post in this thread right after he announced he had cancer.
 
Yet, it was accurate. Squamous cell carcinoma has some of the best long-term prognosis of all cancers. It sounds like Schilling went through hell and back, but the results of his tobacco use could have been much worse.
 
Bone Chips said:
Yeah, it was the "bulletproof" part I was referring to. You're right, in 1983 there was good awareness out there as to the long term consequences of chewing tobacco. But of course no 15 year old ever thinks 1) longterm, and 2) that the rules apply to him.

I could say a lot more on this topic, but I've learned over the years it's pointless to debate the levels of moral responsibility associated with addiction. It's a no-win proposition for the addict. What I will say, however, is that of all the addictions I've ever had - and I'm talking hard drugs here - nothing was as hard to quit as chewing tobacco was. And it wasn't even close.
 
I can understand how someone could be easily influenced and ignorant at 15 years old. But Schilling retired in 2007 at age 40 and states that he chewed his entire career. I think what's he saying is absolutely spectacular and could be a huge help to a ton of people. But unless we acknowledge that people have free will and a responsibility to educate themselves about their own health, there's really no point in his message.
 

yep

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Feb 3, 2006
2,465
Red Sox Natin
I still can't believe the degree to which main-board posts about Curt Schilling's cancer elicit exacting moral examinations of his fitness to be sympathetic. 
 
There are like, 75 million reasons to take issue with Curt Schilling, human being and post-baseball businessman, political-commentator, smokeless-tobacco-user, and all the rest of it. 
 
But it's 2014, and this is the main board of SoSH. 10 years ago, we were all staying up until 2am, watching an interminably-long and doomed revenge-series against the Yankees. In the wake of Pedro-Zimmer, Varitek's "take your base" glove-shove on A-Rod, Jeter's overblown stand-diving catch... and the guy who turned the tide, the pitcher who stepped up when Pedro miffed and called the Yankees Daddy, who pitched a gem on the bloody ankle for the ages, a sock that immediately made it to Cooperstown, who put up the big-game start that defines big-game pitching, the guy who didn't think he was going to pitch until he saw the signs on RT 109, the guy who pitched the game that marked the pivot-point from "cursed" to "dynasty", who did it on an experimentally-reconstructed ankle...
 
That guy, that guy, who not only delivered a pitching performance for the ages, made 50,000 New Yorkers shut up, turned the tide of a decades-long "curse", stepped up when Pedro fucking Martinez faltered... that guy who was not just a Red Sox and baseball superhero of historic proportion, but who is actually a member of this forum... Why is his personal shit being unpacked and dissected here? 
 
There are sub-forums and other places to discuss the post-baseball career of former players. Discuss Curt Schilling's personal and political life alongside that of Cy Young and Ted Williams, if you wish, because that's where it belongs, among the footnotes of the greats. 
 
His Red Sox career is that of a superhero, of historic proportions. Before MLB, he was a regular-ish parent of a sick kid. Post MLB, he was a somewhat less-successful businessman and political-commentator, in ways that are newsworthy in their own right, but not on the main board. 
 
This kind of dissection of whether having cancer is "his fault" doesn't belong here, on the main board. We wouldn't do it with any other board-member, and posts about it should be deleted or moved to a different sub-forum. 
 
Schilling chose to make his political and other opinions public, and those are and should be fair-game. But there are other places to debate and discuss them. Take it to the sub-forums. The main board is not the place to dissect and debate the philosophies and moral culpability of retired players with cancer. 
 

Average Reds

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SoSH Member
Sep 24, 2007
35,330
Southwestern CT
Bone Chips said:
Yeah, it was the "bulletproof" part I was referring to. You're right, in 1983 there was good awareness out there as to the long term consequences of chewing tobacco. But of course no 15 year old ever thinks 1) longterm, and 2) that the rules apply to him.

I could say a lot more on this topic, but I've learned over the years it's pointless to debate the levels of moral responsibility associated with addiction. It's a no-win proposition for the addict. What I will say, however, is that of all the addictions I've ever had - and I'm talking hard drugs here - nothing was as hard to quit as chewing tobacco was. And it wasn't even close.
I appreciate the clarification and I salute you for being able to walk away.
 

glasspusher

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SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
9,973
Oakland California
Hoplite said:
 
Yet, it was accurate. Squamous cell carcinoma has some of the best long-term prognosis of all cancers. It sounds like Schilling went through hell and back, but the results of his tobacco use could have been much worse.
 
 
I can understand how someone could be easily influenced and ignorant at 15 years old. But Schilling retired in 2007 at age 40 and states that he chewed his entire career. I think what's he saying is absolutely spectacular and could be a huge help to a ton of people. But unless we acknowledge that people have free will and a responsibility to educate themselves about their own health, there's really no point in his message.
 
I think the point to his message is to address the kids who think they're immortal and to catch them before they try something that contains nicotine, which is addictive to the 85% of people who try it. I had two cigarettes in my teens, felt the buzz, never did anything for me. We have free will to an extent, but if you try something young and get hooked on it for whatever reason, your old self would like to go back and change that kid's mind. Since you can't do that, Curt's trying to do the next best thing.
 
My dad died of cancer. He told me when he was in WWII he started smoking because THE RED CROSS gave out free cigarettes. I tried cigarettes in my teens, I knew they were bad, but I didn't know that almost everyone has a propensity to be addicted to them. I was lucky. Heck, I stopped drinking soda in my teens, never liked the stuff. That was a lucky move too.
 
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