Curt Schilling lowers the boom on some men tweeting threats against his daughter - MLB

Curt Schilling wrote a proud papa tweet about his daughter being accepted to college and getting to continue to play softball, which she’s played for years. Anyone who is a parent — or anyone who had great, proud parents — have had or have been the recipient of those sorts of feelings before and can certainly relate.

Sadly, a few sick idiots decided it was somehow appropriate to respond with awful, violent and sexually-explicit tweets about Schilling’s daughter. Rape threats and the like. So Schilling took to his blog to call such crap behavior out. And not just to complain, but to identify the jerks saying such things and to display their tweets.

His efforts had results: one of the guys tweeting rape threats and other awful things was fired from a part time job he had as a ticket seller for the Yankees. Another one now has local police investigating his tweets to see if a crime occurred.

I can’t say that I blame Schilling at all. I wish he didn’t have to do this, but given how horrible Twitter is at policing threats of violence against women, he probably did. Lucky for him and his daughter his platform and profile is such that his speaking out like this got some results. Most people aren’t so lucky.

All of that aside, I have no idea what the hell is wrong with people.

BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Orioles signed outfielder Aaron Hicks less than 24 hours after Cedric Mullins went down with a strained right groin.

Mullins went on the 10-day injured list, but the Orioles are hoping Hicks can help defensively in the spacious outfield at Camden Yards. Hicks was released last week by the New York Yankees with more than 2 1/2 seasons left on his contract.

“We had noticed that he was a free agent even before the injury,” Orioles general manager Mike Elias said. “When the injury occurred and it became pretty clear this was going to be an IL, it seemed like a good fit even more so at that time.”

The Orioles are responsible for paying Hicks just $483,871, a prorated share of the $720,000 minimum salary. The Yankees owe him the rest of his $10.5 million salary this year, plus $9.5 million in each of the next two seasons and a $1 million buyout of a 2026 team option.

The 33-year-old Hicks hit just .188 in 28 games for the Yankees this year.

“We have stuff that we look at from a scouting and evaluation perspective,” Elias said. “It’s very different from just looking at the back of a baseball card, and we hope that we get a bounceback from anyone we bring here.”

Hicks batted .216 last season.

“Hopefully that’s a good thing for him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of the Baltimore deal. “A lot of time here and a lot of good things happened for him here. I know the last couple of years have been a struggle. But hopefully it’s a good opportunity for him and certainly wish him well. Not too well being in our division and a team we’re chasing, but hopefully it’s a really good fit for him.”

Mullins left a loss to Cleveland after he pulled up while running out an infield grounder. Outfielder Colton Cowser – the fifth pick in the draft two years ago – is hitting .331 at Triple-A Norfolk, but he went on the IL in the past couple weeks.

“Certainly he was building a case towards promotion consideration prior to his injury and prior to Cedric’s injury,” Elias said. “We’ll just see where we’re at.”

Hicks was active for the game but not in the starting lineup. Austin Hays, normally Baltimore’s left field, was in Mullins’ usual spot in center.

When the wall in left at Camden Yards was pushed significantly back before last season, it made left field a bigger challenge defensively.

“In this park … you really need two center fielders,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Aaron’s got a lot of center-field experience. Played left field here before also. Brings the defensive aspect and then the switch-hitting.”