Green: Will Curt get the call to the Hall?

It was June 20, the longest day of the year. The subject line of the email was, “Sarah … you OK?” And in the body, only the words: “Heard about Schilling?” I hadn’t yet heard, but I could guess. When a pitcher is 41 and rehabbing an arm that his doctor has described as looking “like spaghetti,” it’s easy to guess.

Fortunately for the Red Sox, the 2008 team was built to be flexible. And fortunately for Schilling, his surgery was successful. He could be throwing again in six months, pitching again in a year.  And yet, he wrote on his blog, “I won’t come back throwing 85 with so-so crap. If there is not an option to come back and be good, I won’t.”

Curt Schilling has always held himself to the highest standards of performance. It’s the knowledge that he always expects more from himself than he does from anyone else that keeps his outspokenness from devolving into mere loudmouthery, a charge against him that’s always struck me as unfair. And it’s a trait that has made him one of the best pitchers in baseball for two full decades — an excellent run by anyone’s standards.

So on that long June day, when the word went out — “Schilling done for season, maybe forever” — the Hall of Fame debate began. A Hall of Fame ballot has always been a blunt yet capricious instrument. By and large, it simply tallies wins and strikeouts, or hits and home runs. It prefers long careers and round numbers, like 3,000 or 500. And whenever it feels like it, it ignores the math in favor of sentimentality, or, conversely, spite.

Curt Schilling’s candidacy is not clear-cut. Frankly, 216 wins is very good, but it is not good enough for the Hall. Schilling never won a Cy Young. And despite coming heartbreakingly close, he never threw a no-hitter. Yet his unflinching 4.38 strikeout-per-walk ratio is the best of any pitcher since Tommy Bond retired in 1884. His 3,116 strikeouts are 14th all-time. And of active pitchers, his 83 complete games are a feat bested only by Cooperstown locks Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson. It’s an amazing career. But to the Hall of Fame ballot, it’s borderline.

Nonetheless, the ballot has a soft spot for postseason glory, and Schilling’s accomplishments in the postseason put his Hall of Fame credentials over the top. He has three World Series rings. His impressive 3.46 career ERA drops to a paltry 2.23 in the playoffs. In 19 October starts, he only suffered two losses. And quite simply, without Curt Schilling, Boston would still be staring down the barrel of the Curse. That’s one helluva story, and there’s nothing the Hall ballot loves more than a good yarn.

In the end, Curt Schilling will be elected into Cooperstown. Not by a landslide, but by a sock.

Sarah Green is a freelance writer.