MANCHESTER - Why would anyone venture out on a night when the temperature heads below freezing and stays there? Perhaps a bigger head-scratcher: Why would dozens of middle and high school students do so, when the destination is a town hall meeting for a presidential candidate for whom they will not be able to cast ballots?

The answer, in Red Sox country, is ace pitcher Curt Schilling. One of a number of surrogates stumping throughout New Hampshire this week, Schilling told an audience of voters and their children that John McCain is his choice for president. As presidential candidates flock to Iowa for the final sprint to the finish, their campaigns, which need a constant presence in the first primary state, have taken to sending high-profile stand-ins on virtually a daily basis.

Schilling, who befriended McCain when he pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks, brings the Arizona senator a two-fold benefit: A member of the Red Sox in the heart of Red Sox Nation gets the attention of any voter. One who pitched another team to a World Series over the hated New York Yankees is even better.

Attendees peppered Schilling with nearly as many questions as they did McCain, urging him to run for Senate in Massachusetts. One questioner, pointing out that Schilling made more money than Red Sox manager Terry Francona, urged the pitcher to send his boss a message. "Would you please tell him to stop speaking? When we watch it on TV, it's disgusting," he said to laughter.

McCain promised to appoint Schilling chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, and suggested that the pitcher might even have a future in politics. Schilling, who campaigned for President Bush in 2004, displayed some of McCain's penchant for needling the incumbent. "In the White House, [Bush] made a lot of mistakes," he said. He also took a shot at one other candidate seeking the Republican nomination; asked why he was not supporting Rudy Giuliani, who said he rooted for the Red Sox during the World Series, Schilling shrugged. "The flip-flopping thing happens across party lines," he said.

New Hampshire has been overrun by surrogates this week. Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld joined Mitt Romney at a stop in Concord, while Bill Clinton held campaign events for his wife on the western side of the state on Tuesday. Michelle Obama, an increasing presence in early primary states on behalf of her husband, took a two-day swing through New Hampshire as well.

Still, the surrogate New Hampshire residents are most looking forward to is Oprah Winfrey, who will rally for Obama in Manchester next week. The television star also has rallies scheduled in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, followed by a stop in Columbia before coming here.

Tickets for the Columbia event, which was going to be held at the University of South Carolina's Colonial Center, were gone in hours, the campaign reported. The center, USC's basketball arena, holds 18,000 people. Wanting to get everyone possible in to see the candidate, Obama's campaign moved the rally to Williams-Brice Stadium, where the Gamecocks play football. Capacity there: 54,000.