As is the case with many professional athletes, this is not where the story ends, but Curt Schilling announced the other day that he will need another surgery on his oft repaired shoulder, which will keep him out of baseball until the midway point of next season at best. Schilling didn’t say he was retiring but a 41 years old pitcher isn’t likely to comeback after a yearlong layoff and be able to pitch effectively. And he knows as much.

So then begins the talk of Schilling’s legacy. Where does he stand among the all time greats? Is he a Hall of Famer? To be honest, this may not be the most objective post. I loved Curt Schilling as a player who not only spoke his mind, but also backed it up. Simply put, Schill was money. If you needed a win in a high stakes game and could choose any pitcher in history, I have a feeling Curts number would be called by many GM’s, managers and fans alike. Unfortunately for Schill, much of his career was spent with wretched Phillies teams that proved feeble at best in providing him support, therefore hindering his numbers, and also struggled with injuries throughout his career, and that for whatever reason, is the argument against him.  Stats are a big part of the game in baseball, but stats are not what a career makes, especially in Schill’s case.

What can’t be denied is the legendary status Schilling has achieved in his three significant MLB stops; Philadelphia, Arizona, and of course, Boston. On each of these teams, Schilling performed at unbelievable levels when the games counted most. In 1993 with the Phillies, he was named the Championship series MVP for his utter dismantling of the heavily favored and over-powering Atlanta Braves.  In Arizona, he teamed up with Randy Johnson and was named co-MVP of the World Series, posting a 1.69 ERA over 3 starts against the Yankees in 2001. Finally, The Miracle of the Bleeding Sock cemented his standing as the greatest clutch pitcher of his generation.

Yet, the fact that Schillings Hall of Fame Status is in question, says a lot on its own. Schilling battled injuries throughout his career. Looking at the back of his Baseball card, his career is pock marked by seasons in which he simply did not pitch a lot. That hurts his overall stats, and may cost Schill the opportunity to enter the Hall.

In the end, Schilling posted 216 wins against 146 losses (72 of those losses came with those awful Phillies and another 11 with Baltimore and Houston, his 1st two stops in the majors), and sent 3,116 batters back to the dugout either swinging or looking at his 95 MPH fastball. He finished with over 300k’s in a season 3 times, and missed a fourth time with 293 k’s in 2001. He finished 2nd in the the Cy Young Award voting 3 times. Those numbers, by themselves, no matter how you justify them, don’t get you into the Hall. But what the voters have to look at is the intangibles Schilling brought to the table, not to mention his 11-2 record in the playoffs and the playoff and World Series MVP’s he won.

Schilling is a living legend, just ask anyone walking through Boston Harbor today. He’s the one player in MLB, during its tailspin in popularity over the past 20 years to garner the status without the question of whether he cheated (either taking steroids or doctoring balls). His career, and the stories that came from it, is what the game is made of. His performance in game 6 of the 2004 AL Championship Series is right up there among Baseball’s greatest moments (and arguably the greatest moment of all).

You know the story, pitching with a sutured tendon in his ankle, which bled throughout the game, he shut down the vaunted Yankees and propelled the Red Sox to an unbelievable comeback and a birth in the World Series. He followed that performance with 6 shutout innings against the Cardinals in the World Series, ending Boston’s 86 year championship drought. That Bloody Sock was the equivalent of a baseball Stigmata, and if Baseball were to write it’s own version of the Bible… Schill would be one of the Apostles. If they remake “Field of Dreams” someday, Curt Schilling will be one those players coming in from the corn field.

He did things like that on a regular basis, and the post season wasn’t the only time. On Labor Day in 1997, ask any Phillies fan what happened that day, and they’ll tell you that the worst team in baseball beat the best team, led by Schilling’s 16 Strikeouts against that same (albeit younger) Yankees modern day Murderer’s Row.

Years ago, former Phillies GM and current Astros GM Ed Wade made a statement, that was an effort to curtail trade talk of Schilling coming back to Philadelphia. The story goes that, Wade, responding to Phillies fans interest in Curt, said, “If he wasn’t our horse, he’d be our horses ass.” Thanks Ed… great foresight. And exactly my reasoning on why he should be in the Hall. He competed every time out. He wanted the ball in his hand. He wanted to win, and he backed it all up every fifth day. Simply put he was the definition of an athletic beast.

For me, the argument that Schilling is a Hall of Famer is without question. Schilling doesn’t get into the Hall because of his numbers, he gets in for more then that. He single handedly kept my interest in Baseball during the past 15 years when I began to tire of the incessant whining, cheating, arrogance, and stupidity of both players and ownership. Schill called everyone on the carpet, from Phillies ownership to Jose Canseco, and backed his words up by showing up every fifth day and turning into that Horse… a beast… a Champion.

So I thank you Curt, to me and all of your fans, you’re surefire Hall of Famer.