Schilling Family Goes the Extra Mile

The Schilling family gave new meaning to the word “doubleheader” Monday. But this particular Patriots’ Day doubleheader in Boston was not all about baseball.

First up: Red Sox pitcher Curt.

His assignment: starting at Fenway Park against Toronto. He labored through five innings but got his first victory of the season as the Red Sox won, 12-7.

Next up: Shonda, Curt’s wife.

Her assignment: running the Boston Marathon, which started about an hour after her husband’s ballgame did. She had a long day, finishing in 5 hours 23 minutes.

Shonda, a skin cancer survivor, and Dawn Timlin, the wife of Boston reliever Mike Timlin, were running for charity, raising money for Shonda’s SHADE foundation, which promotes skin cancer awareness, and for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research. Dawn Timlin finished in 4:33.

Trivia time: Who was the last American men’s winner of the Boston Marathon?

Trading places: A last-minute switch landed a celebrity TV doctor in trouble with London Marathon authorities.

Hilary Jones, who said he was injured and could not compete, let his son run in his place Sunday, without official permission, according to British media reports. Discipline from marathon officials was swift -- father and son have been banned from running in London Marathons.

Add London Marathon: Before the race, the Independent newspaper listed 25 reasons to “celebrate” the London Marathon. No. 3 dealt with a running waiter who took his job with him on the road in 1981:

“Roger Bourban, a Swiss-born restaurant worker, completed the course inside three hours wearing a dinner jacket and carrying a bottle and glass on a tray.

“By the time of his next marathon effort, Bourban had acquired two agents and a manager to deal with requests by companies to supply the water with which he would celebrate his arrival at the finish line.”

Dining for dollars: Ever wonder who pays the bill when a bunch of professional baseball players go out to eat? The rookie? The winning pitcher?

No. These guys don’t split the check, according to Todd Jones of the Marlins in his blog for the Palm Beach Post, talking about a game called “queen bee.”

“Everybody puts their credit card in a hat,” he wrote. “The waitress draws one credit card and he’s the ‘queen bee,’ so he has to pay.

“But the rest of the guys have to match the bill and give it to the guy who actually bought, so he makes money. In other words, you want to be the one who has to pay.”

Trivia answer: Greg Meyer won the Boston Marathon in 1983.

And finally: Columnist Ron Rapoport of the Chicago Sun-Times, on selection processes in the news:

“The highest officials gathered in secret solemn conclave. Obsessive politicking, whispered deal-making, desperate intrigue. A rapacious media proposing name after name, possibility after possibility, almost all of which will turn out to be wrong. But enough about the NFL draft.”