When Scott Rolen was traded, within 24 hours of the deal I had already removed his name and number from the back of my batting practice jersey.

I’m not saying it was the right thing to do, but truth be told, his name represents a largely frustrating period in Phillies baseball, at least during my lifetime. Seeing his name on the back of a Phils jersey just conjures up too many annoying memories.

I have similar feelings about Curt Schilling; another monster talent who chirped his way out of the city. To say the Phillies got the short end of the stick in both deals would be to grossly understate the shittiness of the trades.. I guess shotgun marriages rarely involve a hot bride.

I’ve watched Schilling’s career with more than a passing interest over the last 8 years, and I can’t say that I was pulling for him or his teams. As a die-hard Phils fan, I didn’t want to see him wildly succeed on the mound, or his teams achieve greatness during his time with them.

I went 0 for 2.

3 World Series rings, and 3 Cy Young runners-up saw to it that Schilling would not regret getting traded away from Philly in July, 2000.

Now that he has retired, and the Phils have shiny new World Series rings of their own, can I forgive and forget? Can I look objectively at Schilling’s career and not get all salty about the bad times?

I’ll try.

All that’s left to debate about Curt Schilling is his Hall worthiness, something I love to mull over. In Schilling’s case, it’s not as clear cut as the Red Sox loving sycophants at ESPN would like you to believe.

Schilling’s 3.46 career ERA would be 9th highest among Hall pitchers.

Of pitchers with at least as many games started as Schilling, only Don Drysdale has less wins (209) than Schilling (216).

Schilling’s winning pct. of .597 puts him dead in the middle of the 68 Hall pitchers.

Wins and winning percentage are poor indicators of a starting pitchers true worth, but the reality is that Hall voters will place great value on those stats.

Had Schilling pitched for the Royals and Mariners in his career, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I don’t think he’d have a prayer of getting in. Instead, he pitched for 3 different franchises that all went to the World Series during his tenure, and his postseason stats are just sick:

11-2, 2.23 ERA, .968 WHIP.

In fact, Curt’s postseason numbers significantly outperform his regular season stats across column after column.

His postseason heroics may be the difference in putting a marginal Hall candidate over the top.

Ultimately, I think Schilling will squeak in after most likely needing to wait years to be inducted, as voters will need to evaluate his good, but not necessarily great regular season numbers against postseason numbers that put him among the all-time greats. A lack of Cy Youngs will need to be balanced against those he lost out to in those years. Lastly, while Schilling had three 20 win seasons, he only had 5 total that exceeded 15 wins.

Beerleaguer thinks that playing on crappy teams in Philly and his mouth may keep him from the Hall. New England Phillies Phan disagrees and says the body of work will get Schill in. He also points how just how impressive Schillings K/BB ratio is.