IN THE RED: Curt Schilling’s bank account now resembles his famous 2004 ALCS bloody sock after the former Red Sox pitcher told a Boston radio station he’s lost millions on his failed video game company. 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy this month. (
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The bloody sock has been replaced by a bloody bank account.
Curt Schilling admitted yesterday he lost most of his baseball fortune after his video game company filed for bankruptcy protection this month.
“I’m tapped out,” Schilling said during an interview with WEEI radio in Boston.
The retired pitcher, who pitched Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS in The Bronx with an injured ankle that stained his sock with blood and played a major role in two of the Yankees’ most crushing playoff defeats, said he invested more than $50 million of his own money into the ill-fated company.
He added he told his family “the money I saved during baseball was probably all gone.”
Schilling made over $100 million in his career — which included World Series titles in Arizona and Boston, knocking the Yankees out in both series — and didn’t say where the rest of his earnings had gone.
The video-game lover started 38 Studios, moving the company from Massachusetts to Providence in 2010 after Rhode Island offered a $75 million loan. He placed part of the blame for its failure on Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
”I think he had an agenda,” Schilling said of Chafee, who was against the state’s loan guarantee during his campaign for governor two years ago.
“It’s been kind of a surreal 60 days, 75 days,” said Schilling, who is on a leave of absence as an ESPN baseball analyst. “It’s crushing and devastating to see it fail the way it did.”
The company was forced to lay off nearly all of its employees last month. That came after it was more than two weeks late on a $1.1 million payment to the state which was the first sign the company was in financial trouble.
Schilling added he was “absolutely” part of the reason the company didn’t succeed.
“I’m not asking for sympathy,” said Schilling, who said the company was in the process of getting more investors when the state pulled the plug.
“It was my choice. I chose to do this, I wanted to build this, I wanted to create the jobs and create something that had a long-standing, world-changing effect. And we were close. We were close to getting there, and it fell apart.”
He isn’t sure how the rest of the process is going to go.
“I don’t know,” Schilling said. “It’s not over yet. I would imagine the next foreseeable time in our lives is going to be consumed by this. It’s a life-changing thing.”