If Cum Posey is a Hall of Famer, So is Curt Schilling
Yes, Cumberland Posey is a hall of famer. And yes, according to his hall of fame plaque, his name is Cum. Please be sure to finish the sophomoric giggling spell before continuing to read this article. It may seem as though he has nothing to do with Curt Schilling, but I was browsing the list of hall of famers, looking for someone who is comparable, and he is who I came up with. It does make sense, as you’ll read below.
So as we all know (and pretty much knew since March), Curt Schilling isn’t going to pitch anymore this year. This means that I got to see him throw his last pitch as a Red Sox in the world series last year, which I think is pretty cool. It also means that he is probably not going to pitch ever again, especially since he was supposed to retire last year anyway.
So the real question is, will Curt Schilling go into the Hall of Fame?
The first thing anyone will want to talk about with Schilling is going to be his numbers, so for those of you who don’t have his career stats memorized, here they are:
20 years in the bigs (1988-2007) with 216 wins (.597 winning percentage), a 3.46 ERA, and 3,116 strikeouts. Compare that to the fact that he only walked 711 batters and you get a K/BB ratio of 4.38, which is pretty amazing (typically 2-3 is considered very good). He also has a career K/9IP ratio of 8.6, also incredible. But are these really hall of fame numbers? Probably not, if taken on their own. One of the problems is that Schilling was on a lot of terrible Phillies teams in the 90s and never won 20 games with them. But wins are probably the most random stat to acquire, as they have almost nothing to do with the actual pitchers performance. Yes, better pitchers win more, but better teams win more too, so when you look at his lack of 20 win years and overall lack of wins in Philadelphia, its a bit misleading. Take for example, 1996. Schilling only had 9 wins in spite of pitching with a 3.19 ERA for 183 innings. Basically, he should have had way more wins, but with the team only winning 67 games that year, it just wasn’t going to happen. Now many would argue, yes, he was shorted out of some wins, but even if he wasn’t, he still wouldn’t have hit 300. This may be true, but there are plenty of hall of famers, even guys recently elected, that fell short. Non 300-game winners inducted include Don Drysdale, Catfish Hunter, Fergie Jenkins and most notably, Jim Palmer.
So maybe his career numbers don’t scream hall of fame, but I would say they don’t preclude him either. But remember, these numbers also don’t count any post-season stats, which is where Schilling made his real impact. In the postseason, he has started 19 times and won 11 of those games compared to only 2 losses. His overall ERA is 2.23, and if it weren’t for that one game against the Yankees in 2003 where he was pitching on 1 ankle, it would have been quite a bit lower. He won games with 3 different teams (Philly, Arizona and Boston) and has 3 World Series rings. He was even a co-MVP of the World Series in 2001 when he and Randy Johnson essentially beat the Yankees single (or double?) handedly. Add in his impact on post-season success for the teams he played for, and we’re starting to see a Hall-of-Famer.
The kicker in Schilling’s case, I believe, has to be the fact that he won with the Red Sox his first year. Numbers aside, there are very few more memorable moments in the history of baseball than the 2004 Red Sox comeback against the Yankees and eventual sweep of the Cardinals, and of course, Curt’s bloody sock. It’s more than just that though - Schilling essentially ended the curse and made the Red Sox the team they are today. Breaking an 86-year drought and changing the attitudes of fans all over New England cannot be overlooked.
And that is where we get back to Cum Posey. He is one of many inductees to be in the hall based on their contribution to baseball overall and not necessarily in-game performance. Cum Posey was elected to the hall of fame a couple years ago (2006) as a player, manager and owner of the Homestead Grays, one of the Negro League teams. He was a pioneer and one of the driving forces behind the success of the league, and if it weren’t for him, baseball today would probably look much different.
The same holds true for Schilling. What he did in 2004 cannot be overlooked. He changed the personalities of millions of Red Sox fans in New England. Because of Schilling, we are all winners today. We look at the world differently. We no longer think that the sky is falling every year. We actually expect an August surge rather than a collapse. And most of all, we expect to make and actually WIN the World Series this year. Curt Schilling was as much responsible for all of this as anyone else and for this contribution - for putting the Red Sox back in the winners column and expanding baseball to a whole new fanbase who love routing for a winner, is what should seal the deal on his hall of fame entrance.
The numbers could go either way, but what he did for me, and for all of Boston and New England in general, gets him my (fake) vote.
He’s also a 6 time All-Star and finished runner up in Cy Young voting twice
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