Not Quite the Second Coming, but Close

Expect to get a daily dose of Boston’s finest, Curt Schilling, on television, even on off days during the World Series.

The Red Sox pitcher appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman” on CBS Thursday night, presenting the Top 10 Secrets to the Boston Red Sox Comeback.

The highlights:

9. We put flu virus in (Derek) Jeter’s Gatorade.

6. It’s not like we haven’t won a big game before -- it’s just been 86 years.

5. We pretended the baseball was Letterman’s head.

2. What’d you expect -- we have a guy who looks like Jesus!

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Trivia time: How many stolen bases did Babe Ruth have?

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End of the line: On Monday HBO is going to replay its documentary “Curse of the Bambino,” which first aired last year.

This quote from hard-core Red Sox fan Paul Sullivan takes on a different meaning than it did in 2003:

“If the Red Sox win the World Series? First of all, the death toll in New England will be catastrophic.

“There are so many old people saying, ‘I can’t die until I see them win the World Series.’ They are all gonna die. It’s gonna be worse than the Black Plague.”

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More Sox: From reader Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe: “Schilling’s appearance in the upcoming World Series could be called ‘Back to the Suture.’ ”

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Family ties: Where did we go wrong?

That’s probably what the Cowie family of Groton, Mass., was thinking during the Red Sox-Yankee series.

Young Emily Cowie had become -- gasp! -- a Yankee fan, defying years of family tradition.

“They tell me I’m a family traitor,” 12-year-old Emily told the Lowell Sun. “And that my great-grandmother was watching the Red Sox on her death bed.”

Points taken: Two of Tim Kawakami’s weekly talking points in the San Jose Mercury News:

* “Phil Jackson, authors a new book: Phil didn’t take my suggestion for a title: ‘The Phil Jackson Story, as told-off by Kobe Bryant.’

* “Barry Bonds, undergoes arthroscopic knee surgery: Doctor, will he ever be able to walk again and again and again and again?”

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Trivia answer: 123.

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And finally: Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post, on the NHL’s melting away from the sports landscape:

“As good as the product is in the arena, you never sense the speed or the rush on TV. The old guard stars -- Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier -- are either retired or hanging on by old, brittle fingernails. Who are the new stars? Who are the charismatic players? Eric Lindros’ body betrayed him; ditto, Jaromir Jagr’s attitude. The NHL expanded to cities that had no history of snow, let alone hockey. How deep can the roots be for hockey in Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas, Raleigh and Atlanta? (How deep can the roots be in San Jose, Anaheim, Los Angeles and Washington, for that matter?)

“Outside the Northeast and the upper Midwest, how many U.S. fathers passed hockey down to their sons? This ain’t baseball.”