May 02, 2016
Imagine watching “The Shawshank Redemption,” except all of the scenes involving both Andy and the warden are omitted. Wouldn’t be nearly the same movie, right?
On Sunday, that is basically what ESPN did with “Four Days in October,” the 30 for 30 that details the Boston Red Sox’ epic comeback from 3-0 down in the 2004 ALCS. The editors removed one game from the airing, and it was an interesting choice. From The New York Post:
Prior to Sunday night’s Yankees-Red Sox game on ESPN, the network replayed its “Four Days in October” documentary — looking back at Boston’s unprecedented comeback — but omitted Schilling’s performance and the entire Game 6.
Schilling was fired by ESPN last month after multiple offensive posts on social media, and the feud has only escalated since.
“Four Days in October” is an amazing documentary, a reminder of a time when the Red Sox were still considered a lovable underdog instead of the New England Yankees. All four games are important to the story, but the bloody sock game was really important.
Schilling, fresh off getting the axe from ESPN, was none too happy:
Wow, full one year complete fabrication to defame greatest QB, now omitting about 4 hours of a game I think I played in. Hmm #integritymuch?
— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) May 2, 2016
(Yes, he just compared this to Deflategate.)
ESPN released a statement explaining the editing decision, which sounds plausible enough. After all, you’re normally not going to cut out either the beginning or the end:
“When a live event runs long, it’s standard procedure to shorten a taped program that follows,” the statement said. “In this case, we needed to edit out one of the film’s four segments to account for the extra length of the softball game.”
Why not take out Game 5, though? Conspiracy!
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
