The world collapses in on itself

Bill Simmons interviewed Curt Schilling recently, and the collaboration of two of the most overexposed sports personalities in recent memory was a fun one to read. Deadspin pretty much sums it up. You have to really be a Red Sox fan or a Bill Simmons fan(there are no Curt Schilling 'fans') to enjoy this piece, in my view. It's kind of weird to read Schilling as describing the "Sox Nation" as 'we', considering he WAS the face of the Phillies for several years.

A highlight for Phillies fans, though: "Bill Conlin had (not sure if he still does) a Hall of Fame vote the year Nolan Ryan was up. Bill wrote a column the day after the voting on why he DIDN'T vote for Nolan Ryan on the first ballot. At best, it was repulsive. Bill used his Hall of Fame vote to promote his agenda, which was that if Don Sutton didn't get voted in first ballot, then Nolan Ryan didn't deserve to get voted in, either. As if the HOF ballots were his personal right to make statements. So he took 26 years of Nolan's career and used his vote to make a statement about his opinions on Don Sutton. Sad, really. But in a nutshell, that's Bill Conlin now anyway -- bitter and sad. [Editor's note: Conlin did explain in print why he did not vote for Ryan, but he did not mention Don Sutton.]"

Conlin IS bitter and sad, but it also shows how people remember things the way they want to remember them, since Conlin never actually used this line of reasoning at all. AND, Conlin was right to leave Ryan off the 1st ballot, since he was highly overrated.