Curt Schilling Will (Most Likely) Pitch No More Forever

Is this the end for our bloody-hosed hero? With his announcement this morning that he will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, Curt Schilling has most likely also announced his de facto retirement. He discclosed his plans on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show, and the Boston Globe is confirming it: No Schilling in 2008, and the soonest he might be back is the All-Star break in 2009, and then most likely not with the Red Sox. Or at all.

"I don't want it to end this way, but if this is the way it has to end, I'm OK with that," Schilling said. "If it's over and my last pitch was in the 2007 World Series, I'm OK with that. I just can't stress enough where I am mentally with this. I have not a regret in the world. ... None of this makes me bitter or angry or pissed. It is what it is. In that sense, honestly, it's very, very easy for me because of what I've been able to experience compared to what I wanted when I first started my career, but if I have some say in how this is gonna end, I want it to be different than what it is right now."

This means that, best-case scenario, he'd be 43 by the time he came back; and it's hard to imagine that he'd want that. Curt Schilling is not Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens; the old guy who ekes out eight wins just for the chance to win another ring. Regardless of how you feel about Schilling as a person, there's no denying his credentials as a competitor. Without him Drew Barrymore does not sprint onto the field to celebrate that Red Sox 2004 World Series title. And like it or not, the bloody sock from Game 6 of the ALCS that year will never be forgotten. I wonder, did he ever launder that thing? Knowing him: Nope.

Schilling To Have Surgery; Done For Season [Boston Globe]