ESPN baseball analyst Curt Schilling, known for playing through injury when he was an All-Star pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, had a heart attack in 2011.
“I didn't think it was anything serious,” he told the Boston Globe in a story published Sunday. He was watching his wife run in the New York City Marathon on Nov. 6 when he felt chest pains, he said.
Schilling was known for playing with pain during his career, most famously with an ankle injury that bled through his sock in the 2004 World Series.
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He said he didn’t immediately seek medical attention when he felt the chest pains, and after the race he and his wife flew back to Boston and drove to the hospital. The next day surgery to insert a stent was performed.
“Ya, as stupid as that was,” Schilling told the Globe in a text message. “My doctor made it clear that I was very, very, lucky.”
The health scare changed his lifestyle, he said.
“Oh yeah, in every way possible, it had to,” said Schilling.