ESPN analyst Curt Schilling joined Mut & Merloni on Friday to talk about Red Sox news, including the controversies surrounding David Ortiz and Clay Buchholz.

Curt Schilling

Ortiz was the subject of an article by Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy that raised the question of whether the slugger could have used performance-enhancing drugs to help him recover from his Achilles injury and get off to a scorching start this season. Schilling has had a longstanding feud with Shaughnessy, but even he acknowledged that the speculation was understandable.

“I love David. I love him to death. And I think a lot of what Dan has done in his life has been personally driven. But he didn’t ask a question that people aren’t asking themselves,” Schilling said. “And I keep going to back to, as a player, this is our fault. We did this. We let this happen. We had a chance to stop it and we didn’t. I think the way it was done was kind of cheesy. But there are people asking that very question.”

Added Schilling: “We had a chance among multiple collective bargaining agreements — and as a former player rep, I’m one of those guys — we could have stopped this, and we didn’t. And I think a lot of it was naiveté, I think there was some ignorance. But I think at the end of the day, it was out of sight, out of mind. And it’s coming back to haunt us. … I love David Ortiz to death. He’s one of my closest friends, he’s one of my favorite teammates. But again, I’m not sure Dan wasn’t asking the question that other people weren’t asking themselves.”

Shaughnessy asked Ortiz directly if he used PEDs in an uncomfortable exchange in the Red Sox locker room that left Ortiz angry.

“If you’re going to do that [story], I think that’s the only way you can do it and have an ounce of respect,” Schilling said.

However, the former Sox pitcher noted that Shaughnessy’s history of inserting himself into Red Sox controversies has made players question his motives.

“My dad always told me, listen, when there’s a problem, you look around and you figure out the source. When there’s a problem 10 times over and you look around and the only common thread in that problem is you, you need to figure out what the hell you’re doing wrong,” Schilling said. “Every time we talk about articles like this, it’s always about with Dan writing them. And that’s the thing that bothers me. I’m obviously exaggerating a little bit. But that’s why players are frustrated and tired of it. Because it’s as important for him to be a part of the story as it is to write the story. And players have a problem with that.”

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Curt Schilling

Former Red Sox pitcher and current ESPN baseball analyst Curt Schilling checked in with Mut & Merloni on Tuesday to discuss the Red Sox’ Opening Day victory, Jon Lester‘s performance and Jackie Bradley Jr.

After a historically bad season in 2012 for Lester (9-14, 4.82 ERA), he got off to a very good start with a win on Monday. He battled through five innings of work, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out seven.

“I don’t know that I would feel any better about anything from that game than I felt about [Lester],” Schilling said. “I thought he had exceptional command. This was everything you hoped to see from Jon Lester at some point during the season. I didn’t expect to see it yesterday.”

In his major league debut, Bradley drew three walks and scored two runs. In his first at-bat, he quickly fell behind CC Sabathia, but in an impressive display of patience, he battled back to draw a walk.

“Everybody that I’ve talked to in baseball that has seen [Bradley] since high school, the one word everybody uses is presence,” Schilling said. “He has an amazing and a ‘game takeover’ presence, and I saw it yesterday. From the first at-bat, going 0-2 to walking, he saw 26 pitches in five at-bats against a left-hander that’s won Cy Youngs.”

One player who did not appear in the Red Sox lineup was designated hitter David Ortiz, who is nursing an injured heel. This was the first Sox Opening Day lineup that Ortiz was not in since 2003.

“I think David is going to be longer than people think, a lot longer than people think,” Schilling said. “I think [Bradley] is going to get a real good chance to let everybody know if he’s ready or not, and that’s truly the test, isn’t it? It’s not a series, it’s not a week, it’s 162-game season.”

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According a report by Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan, the Red Sox appear to have broken state law by allowing a trainer to administer injections of the controversial painkiller Toradol to treat players.

(Listen to Passan discuss the situation during his Friday morning appearance with Dennis & Callahan.)

Mike Reinold

While Toradol is a legal substance and not banned by Major League Baseball, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts’ Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations said that the Massachusetts board of Allied Health Professionals, which regulates trainers, takes the position that “athletic trainers are prohibited from using injectables.” The specific wording of the law is more vague.

Passan’s report credits Curt Schilling and two other sources as saying former Sox trainer Mike Reinold regularly injected players with Toradol for six seasons, from 2006-11.

“I had a Toradol shot almost every single game for the last 10 years of my career,” Schilling said. “It was never administered by a doctor at home or on the road. I didn’t think it was wrong.”

Major League Baseball, which investigated Reinold in 2012, send a league-wide memo on March 8, 2012, strictly prohibiting trainers from injecting Toradol, the report notes, also indicating that other trainers around baseball also were found to have been injecting players.

Schilling, who claims to have had more than 300 Toradol shots over his career, recounted one episode that demonstrated the powerful effects of the drug that has come under fire for its possibly dangerous side effects.

“I slept on a pillow wrong,” Schilling told Yahoo! Sports. “I woke up at 5:30 [a.m.]. I couldn’t move my head. I went to the ballpark at 6:30 for a 1:30 [p.m.] game. Worked for four hours on it. I literally couldn’t move my head. I went to the bullpen and started throwing and I didn’t think there was any way I could pitch.

“Then the Toradol kicked in. I threw a one-hitter and struck out 17.”

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Former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, now the president of baseball operations with the Cubs, told reporters in Cubs camp that the Sox responded appropriately when former pitcher Curt Schilling alleged that a member of the team’s medical/training staff had suggested that he could consider using performance-enhancing drugs to prolong his career. Epstein said that the individual whom Schilling accused of the suggestion was exonerated completely after an investigation by Major League Baseball.

“It’s the only time in my career where a player mentioned performance enhancing drugs to me,” Epstein told reporters (as relayed here by the Chicago Sun-Times). “I immediately reported it to Major League Baseball. … The club did its own investigation. Major League Baseball did a very thorough investigation. … They had a lot of conviction about their conclusion that their was no wrongdoing and therefore no discipline of the individual in question.”

Epstein did not identify the member of the team’s staff who was accused by Schilling, but he did say that the individual was cleared after the investigations.

“I can only say that this individual was thoroughly investigated and came out with his reputation very much intact,” Epstein said. “Because of this investigation, the individual in question probably has been as thoroughly vetted as anyone in a big league clubhouse and came out extremely clean. So this incident should not be seen as an attack on his integrity.”

For more Red Sox coverage, visit weei.com/redsox.

Curt Schilling

Major League Baseball on Friday released a statement about the Curt Schilling situation, following the former pitcher’s comments that he had been encouraged by a member of the Red Sox organization in 2008 to use performance-enhancing drugs.

“At the time of the incident in question in 2008, the Boston Red Sox immediately reported the allegations to Major League Baseball as required by our investigative protocols,” the MLB statement said. “Once the Red Sox reported the matter, Major League Baseball assumed sole responsibility for the investigation. The club handled the matter consistent with all MLB rules and requirements and in a manner that was above reproach.

“Major League Baseball thoroughly investigated the allegations and considers the matter closed.”

Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling, in a Wednesday interview on ESPN Radio, said toward the end of his tenure with the Red Sox he was encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs by “members of the organization.”

“At the end of my career, in 2008 when I had gotten hurt, there was a conversation that I was involved in in which it was brought to my attention that this is a potential path I might want to pursue,” Schilling told Colin Cowherd.

Asked for more details, Schilling said the conversation occurred in the clubhouse and involved “former members of the organization — they’re no longer there. It was an incredibly uncomfortable conversation. Because it came up in the midst of a group of people. The other people weren’t in the conversation but they could clearly hear the conversation. And it was suggested to me that at my age and in my situation, why not? What did I have to lose? Because if I wasn’t going to get healthy, it didn’t matter. And if I did get healthy, great.

“It caught me off guard, to say the least. That was an awkward situation.”

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is in the middle of another PED controversy, this one involving a reputed HGH-peddler in Florida, and Schilling said it’s likely to spell the end of A-Rod’s career.

“I don’t think he’s going to be able to play physically this year anyway [after offseason hip surgery]. I really don’t,” Schilling said. “But I would be shocked if he [ever played again] — not shocked, I’d be surprised. I think he’s done. I think he’s done because I think everybody that has a say in him coming back wants him to be done.”

Schilling said there were always questions about Rodriguez shortly after he broke into the big leagues as a teenager.

“Given where he came from, from a college perspective, and given all the stuff that’s coming out, and it seems that Florida is a hotbed for a lot of this stuff — I know there were always questions,” Schilling said. “There were a couple of guys that were in the conversation well before this became a topic of conversation. There were a couple of guys that guys wondered early in their careers, that were in the conversation.”

Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun also was linked to the controversial Florida adviser, Anthony Bosch, but Braun has insisted that the relationship consisted of a legal consultation between Bosch and the player’s agent.

“This is getting to a point where you almost have to treat every player under the same blanket,” Schilling said. “I want to believe that Ryan Braun didn’t. I want to believe that his explanation is legit. [But] this guy [Bosch], clearly he’s not a doctor. I think they made it very clear in the article that he’s not a doctor. So why would [Braun's] agents be using him as an expert witness to testify to the T/E ratios and the possibilities of tampering with samples?”

Added Schilling: “This is one of those things that we make it a lot more complicated than it is. If you’re associating with the guy and you’re doing business with the guy, the guy’s business is HGH and performance-enhancing drugs, right? Unless there’s something else there I don’t know about. But that’s what I know he does. So, why else would you be associating with the guy?”

Schilling also made news last week, when he weighed in on the controversy regarding gay athletes. Tweeted Schilling last Friday:

I’ve never understood this ‘issue’ with gay players? Who cares? I know I played with some, their sexual orientation never had much to do with how they hit with RISP, or pitched in late and close situations, why the hell would what they do in the bedroom ever matter?

Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling, who says he has lost all of his baseball earnings, is preparing to sell the bloody sock he wore during the 2004 World Series.

Schilling’s Rhode Island-based video game company, 38 Studios, went into bankruptcy last year. Schilling had personally guaranteed loans to the company and listed the sock, which had been on loan to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, as bank collateral.

The sock will go on auction next month, with online bidding beginning around Feb. 4 and a live auction taking place on Feb. 23, according to Chris Ivy, the director of sports for Texas-based Heritage Auctions. Ivy said he expects the sock to go for at least $100,000.

Schilling’s other famous bloody sock, the one he wore during the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees, reportedly was discarded in the trash after the game.

Schilling told WEEI in October that selling the sock could be a part of “having to pay for your mistakes” and said selling his World Series rings was also a possibility.

“I’m obligated to try and make amends and, unfortunately, this is one of the byproducts of that,” he said.