Eternally Schilling

My love for Curt Schilling is well documented on this site. And yes, I have given up the ghost that he will win the AL Cy Young this year. Johan Santana just had an extraordinarily monster season while Schilling only had a monster year.

But a similar fondness for Schilling extends to my brother and another friend, PK. We’re all from Philly, and acquired our appreciation for Schilling during his years with the Phillies. We all appreciate his big-game pitching talents and rooted for him when he won his World Series ring (and LCS and WS MVPs) with the Diamondbacks.

As disappointed as we are that the Phillies weren’t able to land him this off-season, Boston seems the second best place…kind of like Philly-North.

We are all still rooting for him and the Sox to beat the Yankees. One- cause we hate the Yankees and 2) another World Series will burnish his Hall of Fame credentials.

But there is a sense of melancholy were he to win with the Sox. As my brother notes, Schiling has always had a fondness for Philadelphia. As witnessed by his interest in being traded back here last off-season and for the home he still maintains in Chester County.

But should the Sox win the championship, we will probably lose that Philadelphia connection for good. He would achieve, literally, God-like status in New England were they to win it all – and as an added bonus deposing the hated Yankees. Clearly, their victory would be in large part to Schilling. All of which is to say that should they win and Schilling get into the Hall later, he will probably be inducted as a Red Sox. The D’backs stint doesn’t count. They’re an expansion team for chris sakes.

So while I want to see him do well, it will be bittersweet to realize that he will gone from us (Philly fans) forever and belong eternally to Red Sox Nation.