Curt Schilling is to Bill Gates as NotGraphs is to ???

Jason Schwartz of Boston Magazine has written an incredible article about Curt Schilling and the demise of 38 Studios, his video-game company that fell into bankruptcy last month. I don’t know that I’ve read a better magazine piece this year. You should absolutely read the whole thing, but a few highlights:

By 2006, Curt Schilling had earned more than $90 million playing baseball, not including endorsements. But what he really aspired to was being “Bill Gates rich.”

Once, after an IT guy’s rottweiler died, Schilling presented him with a brand-new pup during an all-staff meeting.

“He really needed Company 101,” [former CEO] Close told them. “For example, the whole concept of vacation was foreign to Curt. He actually said, ‘People get weekends off, right?’” Schilling at one point suggested that people work 14 straight days and then take five days off. It jibed with his baseball experience.

Schilling comes off in the piece as naive but not evil. He thought he could create a successful software company with the same willpower that had him pitching through injury. But software, alas, is not about physical ability.

I recommend avoiding any future investment in Bryce Harper’s new Internet startup or Mike Trout’s food services distribution company. (Trout Trout, perhaps?)