A tip of the cap

Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling underwent successful shoulder surgery on Monday, a procedure that will not only end his season, but in all likelihood, his career.

That will pose an interesting dilemma for baseball writers come 2013, when Schilling's name will be on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. As the twilight of Schilling's career has neared, his Hall candidacy has been described as tenuous, mainly because, at quick glance, the numbers simply aren't there.

With a lifetime mark of 216-146, Schilling won 21 fewer games than Jamie Moyer and just one more game than Kenny Rogers. In 20 seasons, Schilling never once won a Cy Young, never once led the league in ERA, and never once threw a no-hitter. He also wasn't exactly what you would call durable, posting just seven seasons of 30 or more starts.

Now, I'm no fan of Schilling's; whether he's campaigning for Bush, offering his unsolicited opinions about everything, or throwing his own colleagues under the bus, his pretentiousness has always been a little tough to take.

But even I have to admit that the debates about his Hall of Fame chances are nonsensical. Take it from someone who has seen Schilling cost her team two World Series crowns: in my lifetime, no starting pitcher has risen to the occasion in a postseason game quite like Curt Schilling. And when you couple those prolific postseason performances with regular season stats that, though hardly awe-inspiring, aren't as pedestrian as others suggest (see below), you have the makings of a slam-dunk Hall of Fame candidate.

First, let's look at where Schilling built his legacy: October. Schilling made 19 playoff starts over his career and posted an 11-2 -- 11-2! -- mark. According to ESPN's Jayson Stark, Schilling's 2.23 lifetime playoff ERA ranks second all-time amongst starters with at least 100 innings pitched -- he trails only the legendary Christy Matthewson. And while he hasn't earned any significant regular-season accolades, his mantle does hold a few postseason honors, most notably the 1993 NLCS MVP and the 2001 World Series Co-MVP awards. In the last 30 years, only five other players have garnered postseason honors in two different seasons: Josh Beckett, Steve Garvey, Orel Hershiser, Mariano Rivera, and Dave Stewart.

Few understand Schilling's postseason brilliance like Yankee fans, who have twice seen title runs stopped by his right arm. In 2001, following a 22-6 campaign for Arizona, Schilling led the D-Backs to their first-ever World Series appearance against a Yankee squad that was seeking its fourth straight championship. After hurling a Game 1 gem (7 innings, 1 run, 3 hits, 8 strikeouts), he took the ball for Games 4 and 7 -- both on just three days rest -- and was dominant. For the series, Schilling allowed just 12 hits and four earned runs in 21.1 innings, and his 26 strikeouts were tied for the fifth most by any pitcher in any playoff series all time.

Three years later, in maybe the most memorable performance of his career, Schilling torched the Yanks again, this time as a member of the Red Sox. With Boston down 3-2 in another ALCS showdown against New York, Schilling took the hill for Game 6 despite having a torn tendon in his ankle. With blood famously seeping through his sock, Schilling yielded just 1 run and 4 hits in 7 superb innings, keying the Red Sox' 4-2 win and forcing a Game 7.

And if that postseason résumé doesn't sway you, it's not like the regular season numbers aren't there for Schilling. It's true that for his first nine seasons (1988-1996), while he was oscillating between the bullpen and the starting rotation for the Orioles, Astros, and Phillies, Schilling was a mediocre pitcher. Case in point: on his 30th birthday, Schilling's win-loss record stood at 52-52.

But dig a little deeper, and you'll realize that from 1997-2007, Schilling was consistently one of the best pitchers in baseball. During that 11-season span, only Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez bested Schilling's 2,316 strikeouts. Only Greg Maddux had more wins amongst righties than Schilling's 164. Only Johnson topped Schilling's 56 complete games -- the Big Unit had 57. And no one posted a better K/BB rate than Schilling's astounding mark of 5.51.

None of this is to say that Schilling is in, say, Bob Gibson's stratosphere, but when you factor those remarkable stats in with his nearly unparalleled October success, you have to believe that Schilling will be enshrined in Cooperstown in the coming years -- like him or not.