Curt Schilling Becomes a bad guy named: Curt Schilling.

Woah, didn't see that one coming, didja?!

*sighs* I have to do it!

Sony Online is teaming with their famous EverQuest II player, Curt Schilling, who plays MLB for the Boston Red Sox. More specifically, he's a pitcher! This press release found its way to my Stratics inbox.

SAN DIEGO, CA – May 24, 2006 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online video games industry, today announced that Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is about to debut in his favorite online video game, EverQuest II, as an epically awesome, loot-dropping virtual bad guy who battles unwary players. And it’s all for a good cause.

Schilling’s video game character will reside within the online world of EverQuest II (EQII) for three days during the Yankees vs. Red Sox baseball series June 5, 6 and 7, 2006 at Yankee Stadium. During this time, anyone can register for and log into EverQuest II at www.battleals.com to challenge the evil Schilling character, appropriately named "Curt Schilling."

Every time a player defeats the virtual Schilling character, Sony Online Entertainment, creators of EverQuest II, will make a donation of $5 dollars (up to a maximum of $10,000) to the ALS Association, which assists patients with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. After the three-day baseball series, Curt’s character will remain within the game as a high-powered enemy that characters will have to face later in the game. At the launch of the campaign on June 5th, Schilling’s 10-year-old son, Gehrig (named after the legendary Yankee first baseman), will be one of the first to battle his virtual dad in-game.

In addition, SOE will encourage its hundreds of thousands of EQII players to type /ALS within the game in order to donate money to Curt’s charity of choice, the ALS Association. This program will run for the entire three-day series and will give the SOE player community a chance to help with this worthy cause.

"ALS is about as devastating a disease as you can imagine," says Schilling. "It's relentless, ruthless, and devastates entire families as one member slowly perishes. With video games exploding in popularity, I can’t think of a better place to reach the masses to raise awareness."

Ok, let me just say first of all, the person that wrote this press release is an idiot. "appropriately named "Curt Schilling.""??? You've got to be kidding me. How moronic does that sound? Of course it's named that...that's his name!

That last paragraph, about ALS being a devastating disease....can ya tell me a disease that isn't devastating. Cancer, Alzheimers, kidney, sexual...there's NOT one that isn't pretty crippling. Oki, the sex ones you can leave off, most of them aren't life threatening (most...not all), but still!

Never, EVER, quote a professional athlete in any press release. 99% of them can't speak properly, and the ones that can, don't talk to the media.

Now...not trying to say this isn't a worthy cause, and that everyone should be aware of it, and all that jazz. Just trying to say: If you feel this much force in dealing with a disease, it's probably not best to let SOE turn you into a bad guy to raise money for it. That is all!