The big game pitcher: with back-to-back 20-win seasons, Curt Schilling of the Diamondbacks has become one of the most productive starters over the last two years

Baseball Digest, Nov, 2002 by Johnny Rosenstein

HIS TEAMMATES KID HIM about the Scooby Doo boxers and the Scooby Doo stuffed doll he places above his locker, but there's no joking about Curt Schilling's accomplishments this year.

Through August 26, he was leading the majors in victories at 21-4, was second behind Arizona Diamondbacks teammate Randy Johnson for the most strikeouts (259) and had the National League's fifth-best earned-run average at 2.68. Last August 16 at Wrigley Field, Schilling became the first 20-game winner of the 2002 season. He was scheduled to get eight more starts after that, putting him on pace to win 25 or more games--a total only ten pitchers have matched in the last 35 years.

"It's hard not to just sit in our dugout, watch him as a fan and marvel at what he has been able to do," Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly said.

But Schilling, who led the majors with 22 victories last year, downplays his achievements.

"It's a byproduct of being on a very good team," he said. "You don't see many guys win 20 games on bad teams."

Schilling had a solid chance at that point to do something no National League pitcher has done since Steve Carlton in 1972: win 25 or more games. Carlton was an amazing 27-10 for a Phillies team that won 59 games that season. Since then, only Carlton in 1980, the Mets' Dwight Gooden in 1985 and Atlanta's John Smoltz in 1996 have won as many as 24 in the N.L.

In the A.L., Bob Welch's 27-6 mark for the 1990 Oakland A's is the best in recent years.

"Curt's a big-game pitcher," said teammate Mark Grace, who faced Schilling for several years while a member of the Cubs. "He gets nervous, as we all do, but it's not a nervous-scared, it's a nervous-excited. That's why he's so great. He wants the ball in big-game situations.

"To beat him, you have to hit him. He doesn't do anything to beat himself. He doesn't walk people. He holds runners on as well as or better than anybody. You either have to get three hits in an inning or take him deep."

Control freak

While Schilling has long been known for intense preparation--he has video of every pitch he has thrown in recent seasons--"he has taken it to a ridiculous level this year," Brenly said.

Schilling's most impressive attribute is control. Though he's an unabashed power pitcher, he had walked only 20 batters with 259 strikeouts in his first 208 innings of work this year. And batters were hitting only .218 against him.

Since 1900, only two 20-game winners have finished a season with more victories than walks allowed--Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants (1913-1914) and Slim Sallee of the Reds (1919).

"You know he's going to throw you a first-pitch fastball," Brenly said, "and most guys still can't hit it. If they do, they usually get out easily. If you take it, you're in the hole 0-1.

"Then he can come back with another 96-mph heater, the wicked split-finger, a (nasty) curveball or come at you with the slider.... He can throw any of them anywhere he wants to.

"We've seen a lot of teams this year try to attack him early in the count, and it ends up that he's in the seventh inning with 61 pitches. Teams that try to be patient against him find themselves in a lot of 0-2 holes."

Schilling, 35 and in his third season with the Diamondbacks, pitched at least six innings in each of his first 27 starts and seven or more innings in 24 starts. Arizona was 21-6 in his first 27 starts, and was 6-0 in six starts after a Diamondbacks loss.

He underwent surgery for a career-threatening torn labrum after the 1995 season and has come back better than ever, a tribute to his recuperative powers and his work ethic. Schilling also credits a conversation he had with Roger Clemens, who instilled in him the importance of hard work and preparation.

"As hard as he throws, you have to get your rest the day before you face him," said the Cubs' Moises Alou, another veteran who has faced Schilling often.

Boston drafted Schilling in 1986 and traded him to Baltimore in 1988, where he made his major league debut after a September call-up. He was dealt to Houston in 1991 and shipped to Philadelphia in 1992, helping the Phillies into the 1993 World Series in his first full season as a starter.

His best season in Philadelphia was 1997, when he went 17-11 with a 2.97 ERA, but he grew frustrated with the Phillies' constant losing. In the last year of his contract, Schilling was dealt to the Diamondbacks in July 2000 for Travis Lee, Vicente Padilla, Omar Daal and Nelson Figueroa.

"He's so much better now than he was with the Phillies," Grace said. "There, he had a fastball, an occasional curveball and an occasional split-finger fastball. Now he's added the great split, the slider, the curveball and the great fastball."

He also has benefited from the presence of Johnson (19-4 through late-August), teaming with him to form arguably baseball's most potent 1-2 pitching punch. The two shared the World Series Most Valuable Player Award last year after the Diamondbacks' stirring seven-game victory over the Yankees.

"Being in the presence of someone who pitches at that level, you have some pride ... you certainly try and match or measure yourself up that way," Schilling said.