Curt Schilling's career appears to be over.

[WilliamPitt]

Schilling to have season-ending surgery
Steve Silva, Boston.com Staff
June 20, 2008 10:58 AM

Curt Schilling revealed this morning that he will have season-ending surgery on his right shoulder on Monday, saying there was a "pretty decent chance that I've thrown my last pitch forever."

The 41-year-old Red Sox righthander made the disclosure during his weekly interview on sports radio WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show, sounding very much like a player whose career could be over.

"I don't want it to end this way, but if this is the way it has to end, I'm OK with that," Schilling said. "If it's over and my last pitch was in the 2007 World Series, I'm OK with that. I just can't stress enough where I am mentally with this. I have not a regret in the world. ... None of this makes me bitter or angry or pissed. It is what it is. In that sense, honestly, it's very, very easy for me because of what I've been able to experience compared to what I wanted when I first started my career, but if I have some say in how this is gonna end, I want it to be different than what it is right now."

Even in a best-case scenario, Schilling said, he wouldn't try to return to the mound for a full season in 2009, but rather make an attempt to be a hired gun for some team during the stretch run. To even get there, however, Schilling acknowledged he'd have to clear a lot of hurdles.

"If I did everything I wanted to do, and did everything I could do and needed to do, and I was healthy, and I was better than that 2007 end of the season guy, and it wasn't painful, I've got a decent track record after September," Schilling said. "Putting myself out there next All-Star break as healthy and auditioning for whoever's in contention and pitching the final three months of the season, kind of in a David Cone hired gun kind of thing, I wouldn't care where it was or what it was. From a personal standpoint, my family's OK."

More: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2008/06/schilling_to_ha.html

[rinsd]

1. He should have had the surgery in the spring.

[trumad]

2. Now he can become a full-time right-wing gasbag.

[joeybee12]

3. A right-wing nutjob, but he loves Boston and its fans...

...can't really say that about many players in any sport today.