Schilling attracted attention with his arm too. Although he has only 216 career Major League victories, he has a career WAR of 69.7, which ranks him in the top thirty all time for Pitchers. He was a strikeout machine who also rarely walked batters, as shown by his number two career ranking in Strikeouts to Walks Ratio. Schilling also rose to the occasion even more in the Post Season, where he posted an 11 and 2 record, a World Series and NLCS MVP, three rings and a WHIP under one.
Curt Schilling’s famous bloody sock from the 2004 Hall of Fame is already in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Logic dictates that there is a solid chance that he will join his famous hosiery, though that would have to come from the Veteran's Committee, as his political views and media feuds kept him out via the voters.
Should Curt Schilling be in the Hall of Fame?
Definitely put him in! - 65.9%
Maybe, but others deserve it first. - 5.5%
Probably not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. - 5.1%
No opinion. - 0%
No way! - 23.5%
Comments
Schilling is still a Hall of Fame-caliber pitcher who deserves to be in based on his career.
The question comes down to whether you think the Hall of Fame represents, or should represent, values other than baseball. There is the integrity and sportsmanshi p clause in the criteria, and I think that will be used in the next vote against Schilling by some voters.
My perspective is that the Hall is a shrine for baseball greatness, not human decency. There are already some unsavory characters in the Hall: Do we eject them retrospectiv ely? Do we say that now we're being moral and decent?
Hall of Fame pitchers with similar "meager" win totals:
Pedro Martinez = 219
John Smoltz = 213
Don Drysdale = 209
Hal Newhouser = 207
Those are the ones whom I consider justified HoFers. Other, dubious HoFers:
Catfish Hunter = 224
Stan Coveleski = 215
Chief Bender = 212
Jesse Haines = 210
Bob Lemon = 207
Rube Marquard = 201
1. Wins were harder to get in Schilling's era than in previous eras.
2. Wins don't tell you how good a pitcher is as much as they tell you how good (or bad) his team was in any case.
He won 20 twice: 22-6 in 2001 (Arizona) and 21-6 in 2004 (Boston, age 37, pitching half the season with a tendon problem).
One reason he "only" has 216 wins is that in his prime, he was on some REALLY bad teams. (He once had a 3.19 ERA and a losing record.) He was on four 90-loss teams and two 85+ loss teams with the Phillies.
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