"It was painted," Thorne said. "Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR."

But Mirabelli denied ever talking to Thorne.

"What? Are you kidding me? He's [expletive] lying. A straight lie," Mirabelli said, according to The Boston Globe. "I never said that. I know it was blood. Everybody knows it was blood."

"It gets stupider," Schilling added, according to the newspaper. "I got the 9-inch scar for you. You can see it. ... There are some bad people in your line of work, man."

Thorne said in a statement released Thursday afternoon that he misunderstood his conversation with Mirabelli.

"After speaking with Doug this afternoon, it is apparent that what he intended to say to me and what I inferred from that conversation were honestly different.

"In deference to Doug, I certainly accept his position. Doug and I have clarified our misunderstanding, and we feel that there is nothing more to add to this matter."

Schilling has said the sock from the Yankees game got tossed in the laundry. The one from the World Series is at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"We have no reason to doubt Curt, who has a profound respect for the history of the game and is cognizant of his role as a history maker," Hall spokesman Jeff Idelson said. "The stain on the sock is now brown, which is what happens to blood over time."