Curt Schilling is going to be remembered for his bloody red sock in last year’s playoffs.
I’m going to remember him for the way he started three games for the Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series. That was bloody good.
I’m going to remember Sept. 11 as the backdrop for that Fall Classic, for the way the Series allowed the nation to focus its attention on something good, if even for a brief moment.
I’m going to especially remember Game 7, when Schilling and the Yankees’ Roger Clemens refused to back down from one another.
Mariano Rivera gave up a bloop, game-winning hit to Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez in the bottom of the ninth inning of that game, giving the Diamondbacks a championship in their fourth year of existence, or less time than it takes the Cubs to re-sod Wrigley Field. But the lesson was there for any team willing to pay attention: Spend money on a couple of horses like Schilling and Randy Johnson, and you just might win the whole thing.
Ten years before, Schilling had been an underachiever for the Astros. Clemens, then playing for Boston, saw a talent going to waste and told Schilling a thing or two about hard work and discipline. Schilling had heard this lecture before, but not from Clemens. He listened, and his career finally took off.
And here they were, teacher and student, locked in one of those pitching duels you dream up more often than you see.
Schilling had a one-hitter through six innings. Clemens had eight strikeouts through four innings. Yankees manager Joe Torre pulled Clemens in the seventh. With the score tied 1-1, Bob Brenly let Schilling bat in the seventh.
Mistake? It looked like it when Schilling, pitching on fumes now, gave up a homer to Alfonso Soriano in the eighth.
But then Johnson, who would share the Series MVP award with Schilling, eventually came in and shut down the Yankees, who were going for their fourth straight title. Rivera, usually as automatic as a monthly mortgage bill, gave up the flare to Gonzalez, allowing Jay Bell to score and the Diamondbacks to win 3-2.
Schilling: 1.69 earned-run average, 26 strikeouts and two walks in 21 1/3 innings. Any questions?
