Congrats to Curt Schilling on a great career, his retirement officially announced earlier this week on his blog, 38 Pitches. For a tangent, kudos also to Deadspin for catching a SportsCenter moment that may well contribute to the job loss number for March (I’m Sure This Won’t Annoy Curt Schilling One Bit).
Schilling finishes with a career postseason record of 11-2, 216 wins, over 3K strikeouts, ERA of 3.46. His best year was probably 2002 with Arizona, when he went 23-7 with 316 Ks, a 3.23 ERA and 0.968 WHIP. The Alaskan native was drafted by the Red Sox, made his major league debut against the Red Sox, and retires with the Red Sox. Obviously he’ll be remembered in that uniform, but there is a ton of Schilling’s career that will be left in baseball’s famous “what if” bin.
Rob Neyer, Dave Sheinin and many others now proceed with the inevitable pontifification regarding Schilling the potential Hall of Famer. At Cubicle GM, we welcome thoughts relevant to that topic but also want to take a look back at a career that was, and at times, really wasn’t. That isn’t to say the entire picture won’t get Schilling bronzed: In fact, I think the ups-and-downs of this shoot-from-the-hip, George-Bush-loving, Barry-Bonds-hating, Towelie-a-facing (remember?) penultimate-gamer in many ways represent the game itself from the late 1980s to the present, but in a way far different from what we’d be likely to remember of this era. His relatively steady and at times astounding performance in the midst of such turmoil and growth is certainly deserving of a spot in Cooperstown.
He came into the game as baseball was beginning to make it’s way back in the heart of fans during the late 1980s. The Bash Brothers were in full swing and before we knew it the Blue Jays were beating the Phillies 15-14 in 1993 ahead of Joe Carter’s turf shot to win it. Schilling pitched a five-hit shutout in that Series after the 15-14 loss to keep the Phillies in contention. By 1994-1995, though, Curt was down and so was baseball. In the midst of strikes and scabs, he went just 9-13, with a hangover 9-10 performance in 1996 even as Cal was bringing fans back to the game.
Then came steroids, and somehow Schilling survived most of the late 1990s with an ERA below 4.00. He also got his groove back to a certain extent, finishing 15-6 in 1999 with a 3.54 ERA. In 2000 he went from East Coast to the desert and in 2001 won a World Series with help from Luis Gonzalez, and George Bush throwing out the first pitch. It was a tough era for the country, but the stadium was a respite for people who very much needed it. On the diamond, times were good, for Schilling and broadly for baseball. He was 45-13 from 2001-2002.
In 2004, Schill came back to Boston where his performance is well known. Red Sox hats appeared from Topeka to Taishan. Times were good, yes, and viewership was up. But hints of baseball’s dark corners were peppered throughout that season. Steroids laws changed, a former league MVP died of a drug overdose, teenage use was reported, and the Bonds/Giambi combo was outed. During the next two years, we’d spend most of our time discussing who did and who didn’t.
By 2007, Curt tottered back to the game after reneging on his retirement just soon enough to see Barry take a dump on the hallows of baseball records in August and get indicted a few months later. Schilling was the losing pitcher in Anaheim the night before. He said earlier that year on WEEI radio, “[Barry] admitted that he used steroids. I mean, there’s no gray area. He admitted to cheating on his wife, cheating on his taxes and cheating on the game.” Six starts after Bonds did his deed, Schilling’s career was, we can now say for certain, over.
Love him or hate him, without question a unique player whose steady contributions are spread throughout most of the poignant moments in a very unique time in baseball history.
In the “what if” bin, I’d hesitate to make any wide statements about 300 wins. I’d instead take the other side of the argument and say that Schilling’s career is one of the few relatively steady ingredients in an era filled with “what ifs” – What if Selig had instituted testing? What if these players had to play without steroids? What if the vast majority of these guys were doing it? What if they were? Do we even care anymore? The list could go on and on.
I’ll leave you with a video, good reader. I think Schilling will get into Cooperstown, though statistically he’s no lock. But in an era filled with “what ifs”, I’d rather vote for known quantities.
