This story (which is not real big news or too unexpected) is over a week old, but I thought it would interest some of you.

 

02/21/2006 3:36 PM ET

Schilling steps in as Beckett's mentor

Veteran pitcher eager to help guide young teammate

By Mike Petraglia / Special to MLB.com

 

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett have traveled parallel paths in the Majors. Now their careers are intersecting in Spring Training for the first time. How they navigate Boston's challenging landscape together will go a long way toward determining the final destination for the 2006 Red Sox.

Both right-handers own World Series rings. Both have started and won crucial postseason games. Both have a competitive streak and fire that strikes fear into batters. Both have modeled their careers at one point after Roger Clemens. And now both are wearing the same uniform.

 

So, upon their reporting to camp, Schilling wasted no time in mapping things out for his new colleague in the starting rotation.

 

"I just was telling him about the life here and how different it is, in a good way," Schilling said. "He's going to be [gossip column] fodder, and every time you leave your room, your house, your apartment in Boston, everybody knows about it, somebody writes about it. It doesn't necessarily have to be bad thing."

 

Winning cures most ills in Boston, Schilling advised.

 

"It's what you make it, but it all comes down to what you're doing on every fifth day, because if you're winning on a consistent basis and dominating for the Red Sox, you could walk around Boston naked and people won't have a problem with that," Schilling said.

 

Having a mentor on his team, let alone on the same pitching staff, is a luxury Beckett has never fully enjoyed.

 

"It's different for me, that's for sure," said the 25-year-old, who was acquired in a trade with the Marlins in November. "I've never really had that. I had it for half a season last year with Al Leiter. It's nice. He speaks his mind and kind of tells you how things are and everything like that. He's just trying to help, and I appreciate that. Every bit of that I can get, I'll listen to."

 

While Beckett appreciates Schilling's words, he is more impressed with how he backs it up once he takes the mound.

 

"Part of being a leader is being successful on the field," Beckett said. "You don't hear about too many utility guys who are leaders on a team unless they were a starter on that team for a really long time. I think that's just as impressive as his resume on the field."

 

Schilling and Beckett each have a track record of winning big games, and both realize that the pressure of winning is intense but it can also be immensely rewarding.

 

"He's 25 years old, and he's got a track record that's impressive," Schilling said of Beckett, the 2003 World Series MVP. "He's got to take that next step. He's got to go out and make 30 to 35 starts and win 20, and I think he knows that. In talking to him, the one thing you hold out [hope] with him is that in the biggest game of his life, he was at his best, and I think that makes him part of the one percent of guys out there that get it. This is a different environment. This is 162-game Green Bay Packers season with 19 World Series games thrown in the mix, and that's just a different way of living, and that's a good thing."

 

Beckett offered a slightly different perspective on his 2003 World Series-clinching Game 6 performance at Yankee Stadium, recalling his two-hit shutout of the Cubs in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series that year, with his team down three games to one.

 

"I had a great game there," he said. "I did have a great game in the biggest game, but if you look back, the shutout I threw against Chicago was by far my best game of the postseason that year.

 

"They asked me if I wanted the ball in Game 6 [of the World Series], and I said yes. I'll always say yes. That's what I did with [Marlins manager] Jack McKeon. I told him, 'Let me see how I feel tomorrow.' I went out, did a long toss, came in and said, 'I'll pitch, I want it, I want to do it.' And it ended up working out."

 

Still, Beckett appreciated the compliments on his character.

 

"Obviously, what he's talking about is more the mental aspect of pitching, and from that aspect, yes, that was my biggest game," Beckett said. "That's great, because he's done it, too, so it's nice to have people you can count on whenever you need one of those games."

 

When Beckett takes the mound for the first time at Fenway in a Red Sox uniform, Schilling expects him to seize the opportunity to win over a new legion of fans in Boston.

 

"I think he's excited about it," Schilling said. "I liken it to what Jonathan Papelbon is going through. There's nothing better than a young pitcher that has a desire to flush things out, hear about it and try and get a grasp on things and make it work for them instead of going in with an antagonistic approach, looking at things negatively. You go in positively and remember that bottom line is about production."

 

One thing Schilling did not discuss was the potential impact he and Beckett could have at the top of the Red Sox rotation if all works as planned.

 

"We haven't talked about that," Schilling said. "My Spring Training group is him, Papelbon and [Jon] Lester, so we'll get a chance to talk about pitching and that kind of thing once you get camp going."

 

The Red Sox are hoping both will be headed in the right direction.

 

Source -- http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/ne...t=.jsp&c_id=bos

Having a mentor on his team, let alone on the same pitching staff, is a luxury Beckett has never fully enjoyed.

 

"It's different for me, that's for sure," said the 25-year-old, who was acquired in a trade with the Marlins in November. "I've never really had that. I had it for half a season last year with Al Leiter.

 

He speaks the truth, and it really makes me wonder.

 

I mean, I was one of the few constant Leiter supporters and while his DFA did give a chance to Olsen and later Vargas, I can't help but wonder "what if?"

 

Of course, had Leiter been successful this wouldn't even be an issue, but what if the Marlins had simply carried Leiter for the remainder of the season as the 25th man...surely he offered just as much if not more than Valerio De Los Santos. I mean, outside of Willis and at times Beckett, the rotation was god-awful in the second half, maybe his influence could have lended stability...oh well.