Curt Schilling

Curtis Montague "Curt" Schilling (born November 14, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska) is a former American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 1993 and has won World Series championships in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in 2004 and 2007 with the Boston Red Sox. Schilling retired with a career postseason record of 11–2. His .846 postseason winning percentage is a major-league record among pitchers with at least 10 decisions.Schilling graduated from Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1985, before attending Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona. Schilling began his professional career in the Red Sox farm system as a second-round pick in what would be the final January draft in MLB. He began his professional career with the Elmira Pioneers, a then Red Sox affiliate. After two and a half years in the minor leagues, he and Brady Anderson were traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 1988 for Mike Boddicker. His major league debut was with the Orioles (1988–1990), and he then spent one year with the Houston Astros (1991).

Schilling formed a deep-rooted interest in the board wargame Advanced Squad Leader. Schilling's disappointment at not being able to attend the ASL Oktoberfest (an annual game convention) led him to create his own, The ASL Open, which debuted the weekend of January 15, 1993, in Houston, Texas. The Open was financed out of his own pocket. Schilling also started his own amateur publication entitled Fire for Effect, a bi-monthly featuring "some of the ASL hobby's best writers". When his favorite game was sold along with Avalon Hill to Hasbro, Schilling founded the small gaming company Multi-Man Publishing to maintain ASL and other Avalon Hill titles. He also started a new, professional publication entitled ASL Journal and contributed articles, editorials, and game scenarios. Schilling has played EverQuest and EverQuest II, and has reviewed two of the game's many expansion packs for PC Gamer magazine. Most recently, Schilling has been playing World of Warcraft and has become a regular guest on the popular World of Warcraft podcast, The Instance, with hosts Scott Johnson and Randy Jordan. In a July 2008 interview on The Jace Hall Show, Schilling confirmed this: "My time-sink has been MMOs for the most part, all the way back to Ultima Online, where I started, to EverQuest, EverQuest II. Last couple of years I've been pretty stuck to World of Warcraft." In 2006 Schilling created Green Monster Games, which Schilling stated, despite widespread rumor, was not named after the Fenway left field wall. In early 2007, the company's name was changed to 38 Studios. In January 2008, Schilling announced that he will be focusing on an MMORPG project after his retirement. The new game is being developed under the name Copernicus by 38 Studios. Comic book creator Todd MacFarlane and fantasy author R.A. Salvatore are working with Schilling on the project. In July 2010, the Rhode Island Board of Economic Development approved a $75-million guaranteed loan to 38 Studios. 38 Studios has promised to bring 450 jobs to the state by the end of 2012. The company is developing two products. One is a single-player game called “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,” which is scheduled for release in the fall of 2011. Executives from 38 Studios introduced the game at the Comic-Con 2010 convention in San Diego.

Curt Schilling 2001 world series game 4 part 1

During the Phillies' pennant run in 1993, Schilling went 16–7 with a 4.02 ERA and 186 strikeouts. Schilling led the Phillies to an upset against the two-time defending National League champion Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series. Although he received no decisions during his two appearances in the six-game series, Schilling's 1.69 ERA and 19 strikeouts (including the first 5 Braves hitters of Game 1, an NLCS record) were enough to earn him the 1993 NLCS Most Valuable Player Award. The Phillies went on to face the defending world champion Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series. After losing Game 1, he pitched brilliantly in his next start. With the Phillies facing elimination the day after losing a bizarre 15–14 contest at home in Veterans Stadium, Schilling pitched a five-hit shutout that the Phillies won, 2–0.Schilling was traded to the Diamondbacks on July 26, 2000, for first baseman Travis Lee and pitchers Vicente Padilla, Omar Daal, and Nelson Figueroa. With Arizona, he went 22–6 with a 2.98 ERA in 2001, leading the majors in wins and innings pitched. He also went 4–0 with a 1.12 ERA in the playoffs. In the 2001 World Series, the Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees in seven games. Schilling shared the 2001 World Series MVP Award with teammate Randy Johnson. He and Johnson also shared Sports Illustrated magazine's 2001 "Sportsmen of the Year" award. In 2002, he went 23–7 with a 3.23 ERA. He struck out 316 batters while walking 33 in 259.1 innings. On April 7, 2002, Schilling threw a one-hit shutout striking out 17 against the Milwaukee Brewers. Both years he finished second in the Cy Young Award voting to Johnson. Schilling finished the 2003 season with a 8-9 record and a 2.95 ERA in 168 innings while striking out 194 batters. In November 2003, the Diamondbacks traded Schilling to the Boston Red Sox.The trade to Boston reunited Schilling with Terry Francona, his manager during his final four years with the Philadelphia Phillies. This move meant Schilling and Francona have been part of the rivalries of both New York City baseball teams, though neither were on the New York side (New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox and New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies).

On March 23, 2009, Schilling officially announced his retirement from professional baseball after 20 seasons. Schilling ended his career with a 216-146 record, 3.46 ERA and 3116 strikeouts, 15th-most in MLB history. Having last pitched in 2007, Schilling is eligible for the 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.Schilling holds the major league record for consecutive starts pitched without allowing an unearned run. In doing so, he broke his own major league record of 53 straight starts. In the game in which he broke his own record, he tied the American League record for extra-base hits allowed in a game with 10.During the prime of his career, Schilling was capable of reaching and sustaining speeds of 94-98 mph on his four-seam fastball. Throughout his career, he was characterized by a determination to go deep into ballgames, routinely pitching past the sixth and seventh innings. He combined his endurance with pinpoint control, especially on his fastball. Schilling's "out" pitch was a split-finger fastball, which he generally located beneath the strike zone (resulting in many swinging strikeouts). He also possessed an above-average changeup, a decent slider, and mixed in an occasional curveball, though he mainly alternated between his fastball and splitter. Though his velocity decreased in later years (to the 89-93 range on his fastball), his control remained excellent, and he is currently second in career strikeout to walk ratio.[Schilling campaigned for President George W. Bush in 2004, while certain members of the ownership of the Red Sox campaigned for the challenger, Senator John F. Kerry (D). Schilling said he was encouraged to run for Kerry's seat in the U.S. Senate in 2008 as a Republican (although he declined to say who had encouraged him) according to the Boston Herald. However, Schilling was quoted in The Boston Globe as saying that he intended to pitch in 2008, which would preclude a Senate run.[Schilling is a supporter of care for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) sufferers. His organization, Curt's Pitch for ALS, allows fans and organizations to sponsor him, donating to the ALS Association for every strikeout he throws. He also donated to the charity his $25,000 winnings in a celebrity version of Jeopardy! that originally aired on November 9, 2006. In the 2004 playoffs, after the operation on his ankle, Schilling wrote "K ALS" (short for "strike out ALS") on his shoe, knowing that the cameras would be focusing on his foot numerous times while he was pitching. He also does a weekly radio show with WEEI in Boston that raises over $100,000 each year for ALS patients and research.