Shonda Schilling, wife former American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher and failed video game developer Curt Schilling, has stated that the estate auction taking place at their Medford, Massachusetts home is just an instance of downsizing.

Consignworks Inc., the estate sale company handling the property, had listed almost everything inside the 7-bedroom house. Items from perfume, t-shirts, a grand piano, a chocolate bunny, various Halloween ephemera, etc., were up for grabs last Saturday.

The family estate was bought from former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe in 2004 for $4.5 million, and is now also on the market for $3 million. The Schillings have been trying to sell the property for some time.

On October 9th, Shonda addressed the public on her Facebook page. To paraphrase,

“We are not doing this because we have lost everything and need the money … Media, talk shows, newspapers you have once again tried to humiliate my husband and my family … That anyone would want to see someone fall so badly that they would assume and write the headlines that were written are pathetic … Starting five years ago I really wanted to move. Having a child on the autism spectrum (son Grant), I really wanted him to be in a neighborhood so he could model behaviors of kids his age.”

Curt Schilling, once head of the bankrupt video game developer 38 Studios, had effectively blew the money he had earned during his nineteen year Major League Baseball career. Long story short, upon retiring from the Red Sox in 2007, Schilling, a huge fan of World of Warcraft, founded 38 Studios (originally called Green Monster Games, after Fenway’s famed left field wall). In 2010 Schilling struck a deal with the government of Rhode Island to move the company there. Part of the deal included a $75 million loan from the Rhode Island Board of Economic Development.

38 Studios eventually defaulted on the loan, laid off 300 employees via email, and Schilling lost roughly $50 million of his personal finances. Schilling told the WEEI radio Boston’s Dennis & Callahan show, soon after his company went bankrupt, “I’m tapped out. I put everything in my name in this company. The money I saved and earned playing baseball was probably all gone… Life is going to be different.”

Image via YouTube.