>The hundred or so career wins ;-) Any friendly neighborhood sabermatrician will easily process that. It dwarfs any slight advantages in fine print statistical measures.
>
>I agree that Schilling's win total would definitely put him at the low end of career wins for starters. But as your acknowledged, there have been a few starters with similar win totals who are in the HOF. But the question is how much longevity plays a factor.
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>Schilling wasn't a starter until his fifth season, while Glavine was a starter much sooner - and Glavine had about 250 more career starts.
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>Had Schilling not reached 200 wins, I wouldn't be raising the issue.
>
>But consider this...neither Tommy John nor Jim Kaat are in the HOF, and yet they have much closer to 300 wins. Their other numbers are not outstanding.
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>However, pitchers like Catfish Hunter and Jim Bunning are in the HOF, and each man only had 224 wins.
>
>Schilling's numbers in all other categories (# of Ks, K/BB ratio, winning %, ERA, and certainly post-season counts), plus his 200+ wins, are compelling reasons for the HOF...or at least a much higher vote % than what he's received.

Is the photo in your autosig new? I LOVE the picture of you and Katy. That epitomizes the joy of having a daughter. Beautiful.

Re pitchers, we could debate it all winter. That's why it's called the hot stove league, right? If and when Curt Schilling is elected I will be as happy as you. This was not even on my radar, so kudos.

That video of the last game of the 1965 World Series has lingered in my mind. Rewatching it now brings it home vividly how much pro sports have gone corporate. I am not blaming anyone for taking the dollars. Who could say no? Koufax himself and Don Drysdale famously held out in tandem for $100,000 salaries. The 1965 game strikes me as pure. There was no hour long pregame show. No sideline analysts. No "First pitch presented by..." No crawl news of the status of other games. The game you were watching was expected to be enough. At the end, the Dodgers, the new "world champions," did not make a pig pile or douse each other in champagne in the locker room, the cameramen right with them. The presentation of the trophy by the commissioner was low key, not surrounded by commercials for 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after. The Dodgers were obviously happy to have won. It was a manly thing, like they had just topped off a new construction tower they had built.

The corporate interests picked up the scent and have upped the ante every year since. Don't worry, I am not turning into Dragan (who I like a lot), but we have lost something since pro sports started moneying up. We have lost some of the joy and purity of the game just for itself.