Schilling, Curt

Curt Schilling, byname of Curtis Montague Schilling, (born November 14, 1966, Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.), American professional baseball player who emerged as a leading pitcher in the 1990s and helped both the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001) and the Boston Red Sox (2004 and 2007) win the World Series.

Schilling was drafted by the Red Sox out of Yavapai Junior College in Prescott, Arizona, and made his major league debut with the Baltimore Orioles in 1988. He was traded to the Houston Astros in 1991 and to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1992. Schilling was primarily a relief pitcher early in his career, but he joined the Phillies starting rotation during his first year with the team and promptly posted a career-low 2.35 earned run average (ERA). The following year he won 16 games and helped the Phillies reach the World Series, which they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays. He was limited by a series of injuries over the next three seasons, but in 1997 he returned to form with 17 wins and a league-leading 319 strikeouts to earn the first of six career All-Star selections. Schilling was traded to the Diamondbacks in 2000, and the following year he teamed with left-hander Randy Johnson to form one of the most imposing pitching duos in baseball. In 2001 Schilling won 22 games and compiled a 2.98 ERA. That year he helped the Diamondbacks upset the New York Yankees to win the World Series. Schilling and Johnson shared Series Most Valuable Player honours.

In 2003 Schilling signed with the Red Sox. His 21 wins in 2004 were the most in the league and marked the third time Schilling had posted 20 or more victories in a single season (2001 and 2002). Aided by his pitching, Boston staged a remarkable play-off run in 2004. Schilling helped the Red Sox rally to become the first team in major league history to overcome a three-games-to-none series deficit to defeat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series (ALCS). His performance in the pivotal ALCS game six, popularly known as the “bloody sock game,” became a part of baseball lore. Having aggravated an ankle injury earlier in the play-offs, Schilling pitched game six shortly after having undergone an experimental surgical procedure that consisted of stapling the tendon in his right ankle to keep it in place. The staples did not hold during the game, and television cameras frequently focused on the growing bloodstain on Schilling’s ankle, but he pitched through the pain and limited the powerful Yankees lineup to four hits and one run over seven innings in a 4–2 victory. The Red Sox then proceeded to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, ending Boston’s 86-year world championship drought. Schilling’s 2005 season was marred by injuries, but in 2006 Schilling became the 14th pitcher in league history to accumulate 3,000 strikeouts and the 3rd to do so before compiling 1,000 walks. Hampered again by injuries, Schilling won only nine games in the 2007 regular season, but his three postseason wins helped the Red Sox capture another World Series championship (a four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies). After missing the 2008 season because of a shoulder injury, he retired from professional baseball in March 2009.

In 2006, while still playing with the Red Sox, Schilling—a longtime fan of electronic role-playing games—founded a video-game company, which eventually was named 38 Studios, for the number Schilling wore during the last 16 years of his career. Originally based in Massachusetts, the company relocated to Rhode Island in 2011 after receiving a $75 million loan from the state. When the company defaulted on the loan in May 2012 and subsequently declared bankruptcy, with more than 400 employees losing their jobs, Schilling was accused by some of mismanagement.

Schilling joined the sports network ESPN in 2010, serving as a cohost on in-studio baseball shows and as a colour commentator on games the network broadcast. In 2015 the politically outspoken Schilling was suspended for a month for sharing a Twitter post that compared extremist Muslims to Nazis. The following year he was fired from the network after sharing an anti-transgender post on Facebook. In October 2016 he began hosting a daily online radio program that focused on conservative politics.