ESPN's Dallas Braden will join the booth for the net's "Monday Night Baseball" telecasts, replacing Curt Schilling, who was fired last week. Braden will continue to be on the net's "Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown" team (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). Schilling on Friday joined Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM Patriot to discuss his departure, and he said that "being able to post his thoughts and opinions as he pleases ultimately outweighed the personal enjoyment and financial benefits that came with his ESPN job." Schilling: "The outpouring in my direction has been mind-boggling. ... If that job meant I had to continue doing it to put a roof over the head of my family and food on my table, I'm probably acting a little differently than I did. I get it. A lot of people can't or won't jeopardize what they do for a living to be and espouse the things they believe and are. I'm not that guy." In DC, Nick Martin noted Schilling's social media activity in the days following his firing "has not subsided," but rather it has maintained, with Schilling retweeting a tweet from ESPN's Kenny Mayne in an "attempt to paint ESPN as a left-leaning company and again sharing a post set on marking a singular divide of Muslims in the world" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 4/22).
COMPANY BRAND: In Buffalo, Mike Harrington wrote there "is a line of talking too much on social media" and Schilling "talked too much." He almost "dared ESPN to fire him and the network finally took him up on it." Harrington: "Whether you like it or not, you always represent your company on social media. That's just how it is." Schilling was "far too much a distraction to make it worthwhile for the network to keep him" (BUFFALO NEWS, 4/24). In N.Y., Bob Raissman dubbed Schilling his "Dweeb Of The Week" for "begging ESPN to fire him." Raissman: "Insensitivity and stupidity are not a right" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 4/24). The CHARLOTTE OBSERVER editorial board writes Schilling "has a right to free speech," but ESPN also "has a right to fire high-profile, well-paid people who sully the company brand." Most fans "want to hear Schilling talk baseball," but if he "wants to repeatedly spout off on social and political issues, he can find a better forum than ESPN." No one comment of Schilling's "was enough to warrant dismissal," but the pattern "finally became too much" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 4/25).
