On Monday morning, pitcher Curt Schilling Announced his retirement from baseball after 20 seasons in the bigs.Schillings career was spent with five teams (Oriols, Astros, Phillies, Diamondbacks, Red Sox) over the 20 year span. He broke into the majors in 1988 with Baltimore but the teams quickly gave up on him when they saw him as too immature, too unwilling to do the work required to succeed in the big leagues and they sent him to the minors following the 1990 season.
A lot of the people who knew Schilling best felt exactly the same way. He was a goofball, a funny guy, the life of the party, but he was never going to be more than that. Schilling credited a tough-love talk with Roger Clemens with getting him straightened out. Whatever it was, something clicked in his fifth big league season. From the 1992 season on, he was a rock, winning 20 games three times, pitching 200 innings nine times.
He pitched in four World Series winning three rings. The first in 2001 with the Diamondbacks when he joined with Randy Johnson to form one of the most dominant pitching duos in recent history. His final two rings came with Boston in 2004 and 2007.
Schilling's resume for the Hall-of-Fame includes an overall record of 216-146, a 3.46 ERA, and 3, 116 career strikeouts and he was a six-time all-star.
I remember watching this guy fool hitters in Philly, Arizona, and Boston and I cannot think of a much more dominant pitcher in this era. He was certainly one of the best the game has to offer. He is a lock for Cooperstown and is sure to be mentioned as one of the most clutch performers in MLB history.
Cory Guinn
FANdemoniumSports.blogspot.com
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