American baseball players often use (or have used) anabolic steroids. Therefore, the topic of steroids in baseball is popular and causes a lot of hype. Some former athletes accuse their colleagues of using steroids, although they themselves are probably former steroid users. In this article, we will tell you about Curt Schilling, an extraordinary baseball player.

Curt Schilling’s life path 

The future sportsman spent his childhood in the capital of Arizona, the city of Phoenix, attending a comprehensive high school called Shadow Mountain, then Yavapai College (which as Athletics Department) in Prescott, Arizona. He led his sports team to a great victory in the US Tournament among all junior colleges in 1985.

In January 1986, he was inducted into the Boston Red Sox (or simply Red Sox) baseball team. He entered into his first PRO contract with the professional team on May 30, 1986 and started playing in the low league with the not well-known Elmira Pioneers team (NY-Penn League, А level) in 1986. The following sports season, he joined the Hornets of Greensboro (South Atlantic League, А level). On July 29th, 1988, after starting a season with the New Britain Red Sox (Eastern League, АА Level), the athlete was transferred to the Baltimore Orioles. First, he played in the low league with the Charlotte Knights (Southern League, AA level), then he finished the sports season with the Orioles where he played four games.

In 1989, he played as a starting pitcher for the Rochester Red Wings in the International League. He started 27 games in total, launched 9 complete matches and succeeded in 3 shutouts. His record was 13 wins for 11 losses. He finished the season again with the Orioles for five games. After a defeat for his first start, he was used as a relief pitcher in the other four games. The next season, he shared his time again between Rochester and Baltimore. He began 14 games with Rochester for a record of 4 wins and 4 losses, while he was lined up as a relief pitcher with the Orioles in 35 games. He got 3 saves and on average 2.54 earned runs. On January 10, 1991, he was transferred to the Houston Astros. He played 56 games as a relief pitcher, finished 34 games and got 8 saves. He was transferred again, this time before the start of the 1992 season to Philadelphia where he joined the Phillies.

The sportsman was one of the pioneers in the Phillies division title race in 1993. He finished that season with a record of 16 wins, 7 losses, on average 4.02 earned runs & more than 180 strikeouts. He then led the Phillies to a surprise win in the US League final against the Braves from Atlanta, winner of the previous 2 titles. Without any decisions (win or lose) in the all six finals, he was rewarded with the best baseballs player prize in the series with almost 20 strikeouts. In the World Series, the Phillies then met the Toronto Blue Jays, outgoing champions. The sportsman was credited with the loss in match 1, but was redeemed in match 5, where he launched a full match without a point. The Phillies won the game 2-0, avoiding elimination. However, the next day, the Phillies were defeated in the final round while they led 6 to 5.

The Phillies no longer played leading roles in subsequent seasons, although our character was one of the league’s best pitchers. He started to show his big dissatisfaction with the government of the Phillies, saying the leaders were not making enough effort to build a title-scoring team. In 2000, the sportsman asked to be purchased and on July 26, he was swapped for some Arizona Diamondbacks (or simply D-backs) baseball players.

On November 28, 2003, D-backs swapped Schilling for 4 Boston Red Sox players. From his 1st season with Red Soxes, he won 21 wins for 6 losses. The sportsman announced his end of sports career on March 23, 2009. The baseball guru played his last major game in the regular season on September 25, 2007 with Boston, and his last playoff game on October 25 of that year, recording a final win for the Reds Sox in the MLB annual World Series that the team would win 3 days later.

After the finish of his playing career, he founded Green Monster Games company, which was later renamed to 38 Studios. In February 2012, the firm released the game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, but after three months, he fired all staff members because of financial difficulties.

Here are Schilling’s key life facts:

1) He played for the Baltimore Orioles from Baltimore, Houston Astros from Texas, Philadelphia Phillips from Pennsylvania, Arizona Diamondbacks from Phoenix and Red Sox from Massachusetts.

2) Curt’s achievements include 6 matches of all the stars of the US League.

3) The sportsman has been champion of the World Series 3 times.

4) In 2001 Schilling was recognized as the most valuable sportsman in the World Series.

5) Schilling debuted on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball as a baseball expert analyst.

The sportsman’s dismissal

ESPN fired the legend of baseball Curt Schilling after a tweet. The analyst lost his job after comparing Muslim extremist people with German Nazis. On August 25, Shilling, representing ESPN, posted a photo of Adolf on Twitter with a comment: “It is said that only 5-10% of Muslim people are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How do you like that?”

The former player changed his mind and deleted the tweet, but the screenshot of it quickly spread through the World Wide Web, causing a storm of indignation. Due to the scandal, the ESPN management dismissed Curt from work. “His tweet is fully unacceptable. This does not correspond to the ethics of the company. Curt is suspended from working in the Little League World Series program,” ESPN said in a statement.

Why was Curt Schilling not included in the Hall of Fame?

As you can probably tell, the sportsman is a very contradictory person who is trying to gain popularity with the help of extraordinary statements. Most likely that’s why he was not included in the Hall of Fame (one of the Hall of Fame voters has said: “His recent antics forced me to reevaluate his personality, which ultimately turned him to a ‘no’ vote”). This is not due to his involvement in cheating and using steroid drugs, because there is no evidence for that. Although we will never be 100% sure who did or did not use performance enhancing medicines, Curt was one of the few sportsmen willing to speak out against his colleagues who allegedly used steroids. Curt Shilling raised complex matters because he said he believed Barry Bonds should be included in the Hall but Clemens & Alex Rodriguez should not. As far as we know, Rodriguez could have used steroids in the past. Therefore, it is not known what Curt Schilling thinks when he says such things.

Did Curt Schilling himself use steroids?

We have no real evidence that Curt Schilling used anabolic steroids, such as Turinabol or Nebido. We have two assumptions. The first is that Curt did not use illegal drugs because he confidently accused other athletes of using steroids and was not afraid that they would put forward charges in return. The second assumption is that Curt tried to divert suspicion from himself by transferring attention to other people. In any case, he is a contradictory personality, but we do not blame him for that. Everyone has the right to live as he/she wants (within the law, of course).