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More proof not to hit send

Curt Schilling, with the blessing of his daughter, went off Sunday on his blog, 38pitches.wordpress.com.

The former Major League pitcher congratulated his daughter on Twitter on Feb. 25 after she was accepted into Salve Regina University, where she will continue her academic and athletic careers, where she will be a member of the softball team.

She, like dad, is a pitcher.

Of course, the Internet trolls, came out in force.

Far too many people posted sexually explicit and vulgar comments about her.

Disgusting.

Pathetic.

Gross.

Ignorant to a degree that is unimaginable.

And, there are a lot of other adjectives that can be used.

After all the comments, Schilling asked permission from his daughter if he could use his platform to say something about what was said to and about his daughter.

She gave the go-ahead.

And, he went ahead.

“I thank God every day that Facebook and Twitter, instagram, vine, Youtube, all of it, did not exist when I went to High School. I can’t imagine the dumb stuff I’d have been caught saying and doing.

“If you are a dad this is something you well know already, if you are a dad with a daughter this is likely to get your blood going. If you are a boy, or young man, or husband, and you haven’t experienced children yet, or haven’t had a daughter, it’s next to impossible for you to understand.”

He went on.

“That’s all to say I am absolutely aware of social media and how it works. As someone who’s said about 2.34 billion things he shouldn’t have, I get it.

“With that tweet I expected a response. Some congrats for sure, but absolutely the smart ass college kid and likely many of them from RS to reply. And I was not disappointed.

“After receiving the expected “I’ll take care of her” and “Can’t wait to date her!” and the “Looking forward to partying with her” I, like many dads, sent this one”

Pretty simple.

“I have many friends that are in or are special forces”

I get it.

Dad is saying, be careful, Internet trolls about what you say about my daughter.

But, Internet trolls are morons (both you and old and of both genders) and the idiotic males just couldn’t keep from hitting send.

They hit send.

“If you’re a dad you know exactly what I meant by that tweet. I was also going to mention that there is little in life I’d ever go to jail for, but my daughter is one. Another nod to that father/daughter bond.

“In between a fight with Kevin Millar, congratulating Juan Pierre on a wonderful career (just hated facing him) and praying Josh Hamilton gets right, I started to see this sort of tweet.”

I will not print it, but it is hugely disgusting.

And, they kept coming and kept coming.

Morons kept hitting send.

They got more and more disgusting, proving the pathetic side of social media.

People think they can post what they want to whom they want without fear of retaliation.

“And tweets with the word rape, bloody underwear and pretty much every other vulgar and defiling word you could likely fathom began to follow.

“Now let me emphasize again. I was a jock my whole life. I played sports my whole life. Baseball since I was 5 until I retired at 41. I know clubhouses. I lived in a dorm. I get it. Guys will be guys. Guys will say dumb crap, often. But I can’t ever remember, drunk, in a clubhouse, with best friends, with anyone, ever speaking like this to someone”

I have said for years that we, as a society, do not value life.

This is more proof.

I am guessing all the guys who tweeted this disgusting vile of garbage have women in their lives – sisters, moms, girlfriends, aunts and grandmother.

Men forget this all too often.

They forget that what we (as men) say other women, we (as men) would get into a fistfight if it were said to and about our daughters, mothers, girlfriends, aunts, grandmothers.

This has everything to do with judging content.

This has everything to do with things being said on Twitter that would NEVER be said face to face.

These trolls would never walk up to Schilling on the street, look him in the eye and say these things about his teenage daughter.

More from Schilling.

“I have a nasty habit of talking, a lot, about anything anyone asks me and totally unconcerned about giving you my opinion. You will never question where I stand, right or wrong agree or disagree on anything.

“I am completely unafraid to get into a ragging war with anyone. Win or lose I’ll give as good as I get 🙂

“I have zero issues being made fun of. It’s part of living and playing sports your whole life and when you’re built like I am you need to develop a defensive strategy early in life.

“So I look at it like this. Democrats, Yankee fans, people that don’t like the sound of my voice, that’s a pretty big group.

“Those folks for the most part don’t like me even a little bit.

“Democrats for their own reasons, Yankee fans for theirs and the rest of them hate me for who I am or what I say, and that’s not going to change.

“The amount of vitriol I’ve heard is not an issue. I am sure I’ll hear more.

“But I have to ask, is this even remotely ok? In ANY world? At ANY time?

“Worse yet? No less than 7 of the clowns who sent vile or worse tweets are athletes playing college sports.

“I knew every name and school, sport and position, of every one of them in less than an hour. The ones that didn’t play sports were just as easy to locate.

“I’ve kept every tweet like the ones above.

“Now again, I was 17, 18, all of those years when stupid was the operative word. But from the day I was born thru today the only time I may have ever uttered ANYTHING remotely close to this was on the field in the middle of a bench clearing brawl.

“My daughter comes to me beyond upset. She didn’t do anything, she never said anything, yet she’s now receiving personal messages with guys saying things to her, well let’s just say I can’t repeat and I’m getting beyond angry thinking about it. Her boyfriend, a wicked good hockey player who has a fighting streak I absolutely love is going out of his mind to be let off his leash but unlike the athletes tweeting this stuff he understands the potential consequences of his actions and knows the time and place will hopefully come when he can make it right on his own terms.

“These boys have yet to understand one of life’s most important lessons. In the real world you get held accountable for the things you say and if you are not careful that can mean some different things.”

Two of the Internet trolls now have different lives.

One was fired from his part-time job selling tickets for the New York Yankees. Apparently, he was also an officer in a fraternity and the national organization of that fraternity has said he “is no longer an officer in the chapter) and that “disciplinary actions have begun.”

Another has been suspended by Brookdale Community College – and I am guessing he will have a hard time finding another school who will accept him. He is also the subject of a police investigation.

Oh yeah, their Twitter accounts are no longer active.

Shocking.

I wonder how those conversations went with their mothers?

Schilling did not get these two fired or suspended.

They did that to themselves.

Like I always say, a coach does not kick a kid off the team. The kid does that to himself. The coach just makes the final decision.

They deserved the actions.

Good luck finding another job Mr. Former Yankee Ticket Seller.

Schilling took public comments and made them more public.

Listen, kids, would you be proud if I trolled through your Twitter messages and Twitter wars that you go through, would your family be proud if I posted a large majority of them in the front of the sports pages of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times?

If that answer is, “no,” then don’t hit send.

(Mathison, a Weirton resident, is the sports editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times and can be contacted at mmathison@heraldstaronline.com, followed on Twitter at @MathisonMike and is on the radio weekday mornings from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. with Joey Klepack and from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturdays on WEIR-AM)

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