The 40-Year-Old
Pitcher
After nearly two decades in the majors, six
All-Star Games, two World Series rings, and an MVP trophy, Curt
Schilling has conquered Major League Baseball. So what's left for
an encore? Even he doesn't know.
. Illustration by Todd Julie.
He wrote his legacy on a cold October night in the Bronx. Sporting
a bloody sock that will forever be tattooed on the heart of Red Sox
Nation, he willed himself through the most formidable lineup in
baseball and lifted a group of self-proclaimed idiots over the
"evil empire" of the
New York Yankees. He was the missing piece,
the unifying cog in
Boston's quest to end an 86-year baseball
curse.
Had
Curt Schilling never set foot on the mound again, no one would
have blamed him. The six-time all-star had reached the pinnacle of
success for one of the most storied teams in professional sports.
The countless hours of rehab he faced in the off-season, the
lingering remnants from the most famous ankle injury in sports
history, and the struggle to regain his pitching form under the
constant scrutiny of the Boston media would have been enough to
make most players want to walk away. But Schilling does not define
himself by the status quo. He is driven to be great, obsessed with
perfecting his craft. And that is why, three years removed from
bringing a World Series victory to a city known for its almost
unhealthy devotion to its beloved
baseball team, at 40 years old,
he is pressing on, playing his 19th year in Major League Baseball
and his fourth season as the ace on a Red Sox pitching staff loaded
with young talent.
Schilling joins a group of 40-year-old pitchers who defy the laws
of aging and thrive, even as their contemporaries retire, get
released, or are felled by injury. Pitchers like
Roger Clemens (who
Schilling admittedly would like to see come back to Boston) and
Randy Johnson dominate hitters half their age at a time when
baseballs are sailing out of the ballpark at an alarming rate.
Sure, we've seen pitchers in their 40s excel before: Nolan Ryan
pitched a no-hitter when he was 44; 42-year-old Warren Spahn won 23
games. But never in the modern era have dominant 40-year-old
pitchers been so prevalent, with Clemens, Johnson (Diamondbacks),
Greg Maddux (Padres), Tom Glavine (Mets), and Kenny Rogers (Tigers)
leading the charge of the AARP brigade.
"You think it gets easier as you get older, but it doesn't," says
Schilling, who notched his 3,000th career strikeout and 200th win
last year, boosting his career win-loss record to 207-138.
"Approachwise, it's a matter of refining things, year in and year
out."
Schilling's approach is that of a professional student. There was
no epiphany or life-altering moment when everything clicked, no
specific event when the game slowed down, as athletes often say.
Instead, it was a series of small, and at times tedious, steps. A
process of listening to the right people and compiling the right
information.
"Getting to sit down and talk with Roger Clemens and being with
Johnny Podres (who was my first pitching coach), Kevin Jordan,
Lenny Dykstra, and Jason Varitek," Schilling says. "It just kind of
happened."
He absorbs any piece of advice or statistical data that will give
him an edge. He takes thousands of notes dissecting his opponent's
strengths and weaknesses. Watch Schilling in the dugout after
coming off the mound. Watch how he studies page after page of notes
of the upcoming batters he will face next inning. He cannot settle.
He doesn't know how - not even at 40, when most athletes are
winding down their careers.
"It's who I am; I've never aspired to be middle-of-the-road,"
Schilling explains. "I've always tried to be great. If you fall
short of great, sometimes you're still pretty good."
The Exception to the Rule
Schilling's career is an aberration from the typical path of a
professional pitcher. Most good pitchers find themselves riding a
wave of success for only a certain period of time, usually in the
prime of their career. Then they find their production slowly
dropping as their bodies give way to injury and old age. Hall of
Fame pitchers Tom Seaver and Jim Palmer found themselves slipping
in the end. Even the great
Bob Gibson had a losing record the last
two years of his career.
Not Schilling. His prime is in the latter stage of his career.
Barring his injury-plagued season in 2005, he's been one of the
most dominant pitchers in the game. There has been no fall, or
career twilight, as of yet - just a steady increase in
production.
"I think modern medicine is obviously a key component for all of
us," he says. "Guys are getting smarter about taking care of
themselves, and medicine is helping them stay healthy longer."
But the medicine doesn't account for the numbers Schilling's been
putting up for the last decade. And the numbers, though good, don't
tell the whole story. They are the type of numbers that Hall of
Fame voters demand, but not the type that will rival Ryan's
strikeout total or Clemens's number of wins. But one cannot
quantify what Schilling has done in the postseason. One cannot
measure his influence on his teammates.
At 40, Schilling balances dual roles for the Red Sox: He's the
pitching ace as well as the mentor for a Red Sox staff that has
loaded up on young arms over the past couple of years. It's no
coincidence that Josh Beckett sat next to Schilling nearly every
game last season in which the two were not pitching. The
26-year-old hard-throwing right-hander relished Schilling's
friendship and soaked up any advice the veteran had to offer.
"Josh and I became friends pretty fast," Schilling says. "You don't
ever want to jump on people until they're ready, until they open up
to what they need."
Beckett struggled in his first season with the Red Sox. There were
flashes of brilliance, but he committed the cardinal sin in the
American League East, baseball's most unforgiving division: He lost
control of his pitches.
"He's a good kid, and he's fun to watch," Schilling adds. "My
biggest concern for him is his command. If he gets that down, he's
going to put up some ridiculous numbers."
Schilling understands pitching struggles. The ankle injury that
cemented him as a
Beantown legend threatened to end his illustrious
career.
"My faith is my cornerstone and my foundation," he says. "I knew
that if I went through the '05 season trying to figure it all out
as it was happening, it would have been a lot harder. I accepted
the fact that it was what it was and that I'd deal with it when it
was over - the problems, issues, and adversity. You're counted on
to do a job. You're counted on to be good, and when it doesn't work
out, you deal with it. It was a personal struggle, but faith has
always been a good thing to me. It got me through the '04 season,
and it's getting me through today."
Schilling came out on the other side with impetus in 2006, compiling a 15–7 record (the sixth-best winning percentage in the American League) and blowing hitters away with 95 mph fastballs (resulting in the fifth-most strikeouts in the AL). But the return, according to Schilling, is not yet complete.
“I don’t feel like I pitched nearly as well as I should have consistently,” he says. “The injury is still going. It’s something I’ll deal with for the rest of my life. Getting to ’06 was a challenge, and the unfortunate part is I ran into a series of starts during the year where I didn’t match up with anybody who wasn’t a number one, and I came away with some games that I could have won but didn’t. We play in the hardest division in baseball. Every team can hit, so every start is a grind.”
For Schilling, life is a constant learning opportunity. From the success of two World Series championships (Arizona in 2001 and Boston in 2004) and a World Series MVP (2001) to the grueling rehab on his ankle, he finds lessons in every experience. So what’s left for the pitcher who’s accomplished what every big-league pitcher dreams of accomplishing? Another year as the ace of the Red Sox rotation in 2007, for starters, and at least another year of pitching in 2008. As for what lies beyond 2008 …
“It’s not something I’m thinking about right now,” Schilling says. “We’ll worry about that when it gets here.”