A bloody sock mess

The big story for the past few days has been about Baltimore Orioles announcer Gary Thorne (formerly of ESPN and ESPN2, doing play-by-play of NHL games) and his mishearing and misinterpretation of Doug Mirabelli's comments about Curt Schilling and his bloody sock in the 2004 American League Championship series against the New York Yankees. A day after his comments he had another chat with Mirabelli to get things straight and now knows he misinterpreted the whole thing.

From a RedSox.com article:

"He said one thing, and I heard something else," said Thorne of the earlier conversation, which happened a year or two ago. "I reported what I heard and what I honestly felt was said. Having talked with him today, there's no doubt in my mind that's not what he said [and] that's not what he meant.

"He explained why in the context of the sarcasm and the jabbing that goes on in the clubhouse, [and] that I understand. I took it as something serious, and it wasn't."

What I don't get is why Gary Thorne didn't ask any follow up questions to Doug Mirabelli after he heard what he thought Mirabelli said. To me Thorne didn't do his job and that's just bad for a reporter/broadcaster/sportscaster and anyone in the media business. Reporting false information and something that you overheard is not responsible. Some of you media people need to wake up.

On Curt Schilling's blog, 38pitches.com, he posted about this whole thing and bitch slapped the media. Here are some nice quotes from his post about this incident:

"It was blood. You can choose to believe whatever you need to, but facts are facts. The 25 guys that were in that locker room, the coaches, they all know it. In the end nothing else really matters. The people that need to believe otherwise are people with their own insecurities and issues."

"So Gary Thorne says that Doug told him the blood was fake. Which even when he’s called out he can’t admit he lied. Doug never told Gary Thorne anything. Gary Thorne overheard something and then misreported what he overheard. Not only did he misreport it, he misinterpreted what he misreported."