Schilling emotional during magazine interview

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The author of a magazine article says Curt Schilling's ego and lack of business savvy played a role in the demise of 38 Studios.

Jason Schwartz – senior editor of Boston Magazine and author a 5,000-word exposé on the company – was granted a two-hour interview with the former Red Sox legend.

"He was in rough shape, he was feeling it. He teared up several times during our conversation," Schwartz said during a taping of WPRI 12's Newsmakers. "I think he knew he did something very bad to people he cared a lot about ... he was clearly in a lot of pain over it."

Schwartz said the interview took place on the edge of a Massachusetts softball field after Schilling had coached his daughter's team in a tournament.

"He was so successful playing baseball, the remarkable thing, I think, is he thought that would carry over," Schwartz said. "He thought, 'I know how to have success so this will work, if I just try hard enough like baseball.' And that obviously couldn’t be further from the truth."

Schwartz said a common theme that emerged in the scores of interviews he conducted was that 38 Studios did not act a startup. He found the company offered generous benefits like free health care.

"They matched 401k's to the legal limit, free gym membership… when the company started out they actually rented a couple of houses near the Maynard office [in Massachusetts] for people who were moving to town to crash in," Schwartz said. "Curt's instincts are to be a very generous person and he is a very optimistic person, but sometimes those impulses went against better sense."

Schwartz said after the deal was signed, it's apparent there was a stunning lack of oversight by the state of Rhode Island.

"IBM was supposed to be providing quarterly reports to the state," Schwartz said. "Originally those reports were supposed to be written down then delivered, then at some point shortly after the agreement was made they were switched to oral reports and meetings, which is just strange."

In an interview earlier in the week, Gov. Lincoln Chafee offered his harshest criticism yet of former EDC head Keith Stokes over the question of tracking the bottom line at the video game company.

Chafee said he thought keeping Stokes on as executive director of the quasi-public agency was the right move because he "was the biggest cheerleader of the deal.”

"If anybody was going to be on their side and make sure good things are happening its going to be Keith Stokes," Chafee told WPRI.com. "When I found out that wasn't the case I made a quick change at EDC."

Stokes resigned his position in May.

Tim White ( twhite@wpri.com ) is the Target 12 investigative reporter for WPRI 12 and Fox Providence. Follow him on Twitter: @white_tim