Schilling on D&C: 'I'm tapped out' financially

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, joining Dennis & Callahan in studio for 90 minutes Friday morning, said he is "tapped out" financially following the demise of his video game company.

Schilling said he invested "just north of $50 million" of his own money and lost it all. "I'm tapped out," he insisted.

Schilling said he sat down his family about a month ago and explained to them that "38 Studios was probably going to fail and go bankrupt, and that the money that I had earned and saved during baseball was probably all gone. And that it was my fault. And that they might start hearing some things in school and things like that. And let's be clear: We're not talking about a terminal illness or somebody dying. But it's a life-changing thing. It's not a conversation I would wish on any father, or on anybody. But I had to do it, and explain to them that part of growing up is being accountable. This was my decision to do this, and I failed. And life would probably start to change and be very different for us."

Asked if he prepared for a worst-case scenario when he formed 38 Studios, Schilling said he did.

"This was always a potential, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect we'd be either here or close to here up until about two months ago," he said. "It all happened so fast. It's been kind of a surreal 60 days, 75 days."

Added Schilling: "In my mind we were on our way to building literally a world-changing company."

Schilling acknowledged that he and his leadership team "made a lot of mistakes," but he also made it clear that he feels Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee shares in the blame. Rhode Island lured 38 Studios from Massachusetts with $75 million in loan guarantees, but when the company missed a loan payment in May, Chafee publicly questioned the future of the company, indicating he was working to keep the company "solvent."

Said Schilling: "That word, it was an enormous problem immediately for us."

Asked if he thought Chafee was disappointed in the studio's demise, Schilling said: "No, not at all. I think he had an agenda and executed it."

Schilling explained that a key to the company's success was getting investors, but, "We could not raise private capital." The company was in advanced discussions with a potential investor when Chafee went public with the company's problems in May, and Schilling said that scared away the investor. "The conversations ended immediately," he said. "I knew then that we were in a world of hurt."

For more highlights from the interview, check the Full Count blog. [1]