BOSTON (AP) -The Red Sox and Curt Schilling may soon find out whether they made the right decision in rehabilitating the right-hander’s ailing shoulder.
The 41-year-old Schilling, who’s been out since the start of spring training, hopes to begin throwing for the first time soon.
“The workload on my heavy days is excessive,” Schilling said Friday, before Boston’s scheduled game against Tampa Bay. “There’s no pain, no stamina issues, no strength loss, no lingering effects, which is a huge plus. I haven’t thrown yet. That’s the big piece of this.”
Early in spring training, Schilling’s course of treatment became a sort of melodrama.
Red Sox team physician Dr. Thomas Gill recommended rehab for a tendon injury. Schilling sought a second opinion from Dr. Craig Morgan, who operated on the right shoulder in 1995 and 1999. Morgan felt strongly that surgery was best and that rehabilitation would fail – and potentially end Schilling’s career.
A third doctor, New York Mets team physician Dr. David Altchek, said Schilling had a rotator cuff injury as well as the tendon problem and he felt surgery would sideline the pitcher for the season, according to Morgan.
Now, Schilling thinks the club’s rehabilitation plan may be working.
“I don’t expect to, but I could go out and throw next week and just feel miserable, and it would all be for naught,” he said. “But I don’t envision with the amount of work we’ve done and the things that we’re doing that I’m going to come back and start throwing and be out.”
Red Sox manager Terry Francona also sounded optimistic about Schilling throwing.
“He will be measured again this weekend,” Francona said. “Then he might be able to begin throwing a ball, which is good.”
The club and the pitcher had originally hoped he could return around the All-Star break. Now, Schilling said, there was no goal.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. We have an idea of a timetable,” he said. “Once we start throwing, like anything else, everything else goes out the window and you go day-by-day on how you feel and what you’re doing.”
If he returns, it would be the 21st season of a career that’s included 3,116 strikeouts, 14th most in baseball history. Schilling owns an 11-2 postseason record, the best of any pitcher with at least 10 decisions.
But he knows he’ll still need to be effective.
“This is just not about me getting healthy and coming back. I have to be good. I’m not just going to get the ball because I’m a starting pitcher,” he said. “Last I looked, this rotation didn’t have a hole in it.
“There’s a lot of different scenarios that might come about with innings limits for guys but I’ve got to come back and be good. I just can’t get healthy and expect to get a spot. That’s a challenge.”
Schilling was acquired by the Red Sox from Arizona during the offseason before their 2004 World Series triumph. He became a sports icon in the city that year when he won Game 6 of the ALCS and Game 2 of the World Series after having a surgical procedure to suture a loose tendon in his right ankle. His bloodstained right socks became a part of baseball history.
Schilling said he was not hurt when he signed an $8 million contract in November, but knew during spring training that it was possible his career could be over.
“I don’t have any choice. If their course of action doesn’t work I don’t pitch this year, and I may never pitch again,” Schilling said at the time. “I have to mentally get behind it and do everything I can do to make it work.”
Schilling was on the disabled list last season with what the Red Sox said was tendinitis in his right shoulder. He finished 9-8 with a 3.47 ERA in 24 starts, then had another outstanding postseason – 3-0 in four starts, including a 2-1 win in Game 2 of the World Series.
He has a career record of 216-146 with a 3.46 ERA, and was co-MVP of the 2001 World Series with Arizona.
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