Right shoulder surgery will end Curt Schilling's 2008 season before it ever started, and it may end his career. That's all according to #38 himself. Assuming he has thrown his last pitch (personally I think it's too early to say he has) let's examine his Hall-of-Fame resume so far.
His 3,116 career strikeouts are good for 14th all-time. There are four people ahead of him who aren't Hall of Famers, although Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux will be five years after they retire. Roger Clemens is the third, and he's anyone's guess. The fourth is Bert Blyleven and he has nearly 600 more.
What Schilling really lacks is an impressive number of regular season wins, largely due to injuries and his decade spent in Philadelphia. His 216 W's don't even put him in the top-75. He's in Charlie Hough/Kenny Rogers/Kevin Brown territory with that win total, although there are more than a dozen pitchers who got into the Hall with even fewer victories.
He won 20 or more three times. That's also good, but not great. And the fact that he was never a Cy Young Award winner doesn't help either, although he was runner-up on three separate occasions and finished fourth in the voting another time. He appeared in six All-Star games, but never more than three in a row, so he wasn't exactly a staple there.
Up until this point, I'd say he's a long-shot for Cooperstown. But what I haven't mentioned is what's he done in October. And what he's done in October has been exceptional. He has three World Series rings, an 11-2 career postseason record, 2.23 postseason ERA, and 120 strikeouts in 133 1/3 IP. His totals for wins, winning percentage, strikeouts, and innings pitched all rank in the top-10 all-time, meaning it is not unreasonable to make the argument that Schilling has been one of the best postseason pitchers ever. And it is for that reason that I think Schilling deserves a place in the Hall.
He may not be a first-ballot guy. And he may not be on the level of contemporaries Johnson, Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz or Rivera, but Schilling still deserves a spot, even if he never throws another pitch.
In the Roger Clemens/Brian McNamee saga, we now know this much. Somebody is lying to the federal government. Clemens continues to deny any and all wrongdoing, while McNamee has produced pictures of what he claims is physical evidence that the Rocket used illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens and legal experts have questioned the so-called "chain of custody" of this evidence, and how, even if the DNA tests link Clemens to this stuff, there's no way to prove it hasn't been tampered with in the years it's been sitting in McNamee's basement. Wednesday's televised testimony with these guys should be interesting.
Regarding the whole Pedro Martinez cockfighting thing, people will try to compare this to Michael Vick, and those people are flat wrong. Vick broke the law. Martinez did not. Vick was in the US. Martinez was in the Dominican. Millions of people have dogs as pets. Very few have gamecocks as pets. Very few people eat dog meat. Most people eat some type of bird meat. I can see how on the heels of Vick, the Mets probably aren't thrilled that video of Pedro at a cockfight surfaced on the web. That's not exactly the kind of PR you want to have right after trading for the best pitcher on the planet. And I'll be the first to say I don't get what's so thrilling about watching birds with razors on their beaks and talons peck each other to death. It seems kind of barbaric. But it's just not the same thing as dogfighting- not even close. In fact, it's so much different that it's not worth mentioning any further.
And finally, I'll say this about Curt Schilling and Shouldergate. Even if he doesn't throw a pitch in 2008, the Sox will still have the best pitching staff in their division with Beckett, Dice-K, Lester, Buchholz, and Wakefield. No other team is close (sorry Yankee fans). They might miss Schilling in October, though. In 19 career starts, he's 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA and 120 K's. That will be hard to replace. But if the bloody sock is any indicator of this guy's guts, he'll be back on the field as soon as he's able.
Curt Schilling resigned with the Boston Red Sox today for $8 million dollars plus a lot more, potentially, in incentives. He turns 41 next week, so in that regard, $8M+ seems like the Sox got ripped off. But given that he is (a) no ordinary 41-year-old, (b) clearly still a dominating postseason performer, and (c) easily the best free agent starter on the market, I'd say the Sox did just fine.
What I find, curious I guess, is one particular clause in Schilling's deal. It says he can get an extra $2 million dollars next season if he successfully passes 6 monthly weigh-ins.
My question is, why would a veteran starting pitcher, who clearly needs to rely on conditioning, endurance, and location at this stage in his career, need financial motivation to stay fit?
The story I saw didn't say what Schilling needs to weigh to earn his bonuses, but on his ESPN.com bio page, he's listed at 6'5'', 235 pounds. It also says his middle name is "Montague." Who knew?
Gary Thorne (who is definitely one of my favorite broadcasters) said during last night's Red Sox/O's game that Curt Schilling wore a red, painted stocking during the 2004 post-season and that it wasn't actually blood leaking through from his injured ankle. Thorne says Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli let him in on the PR stunt a few years back. Mirabelli says Thorne is lying (I'm cleaning up what he actually said). Schilling and Manager Terry Francona say it's a lie too.
Here's my take. I remember watching those games pretty closely (especially Game 6 of the ALCS). And I remember seeing the splotch, whatever it was, getting progressively bigger and bigger as the game went on. So it was either a growing blood stain, or Schilling was carefully having extra paint applied to his stocking in between innings in the midst of an elimination game, with a chance to end an 86-year World Series curse at stake.
But on the flip side, what would Thorne have to gain from saying something like that if he knew it wasn't true? He would have known ahead of time that every member of the organization would come to Schilling's defense (which they have) and that people would start calling for his job (which I'm sure is bound to happen if it hasn't already). What purpose would that possibly serve him as a broadcaster? It seems more like career suicide than anything else.
My guess is this. Thorne and Mirabelli were talking about the sock a few years back, Mirabelli jokingly said "oh no, it was just paint" and Thorne misunderstood his sarcasm.
There's only one way to prove who's telling the truth- test the sock. It's in the Hall of Fame. That will quickly put an end to all this (and if he's wrong, maybe to Thorne's career too).
Right shoulder surgery will end Curt Schilling's 2008 season before it ever started, and it may end his career. That's all according to #38 himself. Assuming he has thrown his last pitch (personally I think it's too early to say he has) let's examine his Hall-of-Fame resume so far.
