Former Phillie Curt Schilling announced his retirement today on his blog, 38pitches.com
His blog has been getting so many hits this morning that as of now, 11:30 AM, it has crashed. Here’s the story from MLB.com
As a former Phillie who achieved much of his success playing for other teams, this news isn’t really that important to me, as a Phillies fan. (I am also a Red Sox fan, so the bloody sock game is pretty high up there for me)
“This party has officially ended,” wrote Schilling. “After being blessed to experience 23 years of playing professional baseball in front of the world’s best fans in so many different places, it is with zero regrets that I am making my retirement official.
After not playing for a while, this decision was inevitable. He tried to come back last year for the Sox, but it never happened and this season wasn’t looking good either.
Best line from his blog:
“To say I’ve been blessed would be like calling Refrigerator Perry ’a bit overweight.’
Truly an understatement. Perry was huge.
His crowning achievement was probably that bloody sock game, but he is also the only pitcher to win a World Series start for 3 teams- `93 Phillies, `01 Diamondbacks, and `04 and `07 Red Sox.
Schilling got a little too soapboxy with his personal opinions sometimes, but he was still a great pitcher. If people are able to seperate his personal statements from his statistics on the field, he’ll be a Hall of Famer. I think he deserves it.
He was a great player on a great Phillies team in `93 and a great pitcher during a lean time in Phillies history. He’ll be missed by many fans.
Good luck in your retirement Curt.
-KK
