MANCHESTER, N.H. - World Series star Curt Schilling canceled a scheduled campaign appearance with President Bush on Friday. An e-mailer identifying himself as Schilling posted a message on a fan Web site saying an ankle injury would prevent the Boston Red Sox pitcher from attending.
"I am now not medically cleared to do anything until I see Doc on Sunday, so I cannot travel with President Bush," the message read.
The injury would have prevented Schilling from pitching again in the series, he told the Boston Globe.
"I couldn't have pitched," Schilling told the newspaper. "But the guys would have done it for me."
Schilling, who contributes frequently to online fan forums, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.
The pitcher endorsed Bush in a TV interview Thursday, a day after the Red Sox won the franchise's first World Series championship in 86 years.
The e-mail said Schilling should have kept his opinion to himself.
"While I am a Bush supporter, and I did vote for him with an absentee ballot, speaking as I did the other day was wrong. While I hope to see him re-elected, it's not my place, nor the time for me to offer up my political opinions unsolicited," the e-mail read.
That's too bad. I wonder if he got pressure from the Red Sox organization that caused this reversal/apology?
Or maybe he's just that classy.
I think this guy plays for the wrong team in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I still kind of like him. Is he a free agent next year? Maybe the Yankees should pick him up.