Curt Schilling Boston Red Sox

Bob DiChiara-US Presswire

Some people don’t like Curt Schilling because of their personal ideology. Others see him for what he is, a Hall of Famer.

The case for some players’ entrance into the field of immortality is overwhelming. But Schilling’s body of work isn’t embraced by everyone. Yet, by many regular and postseason standards, that right-handed power pitcher was a baseball god.

Someone who pitches for 20 seasons should win more than 216 games, should have won at least one Cy Young Award and shouldn’t have a 3.46 ERA. Those are three sound points that his detractors will rightly offer whenever this topic is presented.

Schilling went 11-2 in the postseason, which helped the Arizona Diamondbacks win one World Series and the Boston Red Sox to win two.  His 76.9 WAR (wins above replacement value) rating ranks 26th among all pitchers who ever lived. Remove left-handers from that list and he ranks 21st all-time.

Greg Maddux, who every rational person knows is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, had a career 1.1431 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched). That mark is tied with Ed Reulbach (a pitcher from the early 1900s) for fifty-fourth all-time. Schilling’s WHIP was 1.1374, which ranks forty-sixth all-time.

Schilling also struck out 3,116 batters, which ranks 15th all-time.

Some have been swayed, or even convinced, through this digital display of the man’s clear credentials. But, any online “truth” must also consider the calculation for human preference. And with that, this native Alaskan will await his baseball fate.

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