Curt Schilling, who last pitched for the Boston Red Sox, has retired from baseball. Schilling announced his retirement on his blog.

Curt Schilling Announces Retirement (Image: Newscom)

The 42-year-old who broke into Major League Baseball in 1988 played for five teams. He began his career with the Baltimore Orioles before moving on to the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks and ultimately the Red Sox. He won a total of three World Series championships while with the Diamondbacks (1) and the Red Sox (2).

A pitcher who was known for his clutch ability and toughness in big games, Schilling finished his career with a record of 216-146 and an ERA of 3.46. The best season of his career was arguably in 2001 when he led the Diamondbacks to a World Series title with a record of 22-6 and a 2.98 ERA.

The final pitches of his career came in the 2007 World Series in the eventual Red Sox sweep. Last season, Schilling was technically a member of the Red Sox but a shoulder injury forced him to miss the entire season.

Instead of trying to rehab his shoulder to make a comeback to professional baseball, Schilling said on his blog that he will spend more time with his family and concentrate on his business.

First Tiger Woods needs to have season-ending surgery, and now the bad news has spread to Red Sox Nation: Pitcher Curt Schilling announced on WEEI Sports Radio (audio interview here) this morning that he will have shoulder surgery Monday and will be out for the rest of the season.

Big shout out to reader Bacchus for giving us the heads-up. . . even if we are sorry to hear that one of our fave Sox might have thrown his last MLB fastball.

Doctor’s orders: Curt Schilling needs shoulder surgery. The Red Sox: Rehab will do the trick. 

Chances are the doc knows what works and what doesn’t. So why is the pitcher going against an informed medical opinion?

Schilling says he has “no choice” but to opt for rehab over surgery.  If he doesn’t, the Red Sox could void his $8M contract . . . and he knows if he doesn’t pitch this season, he may never pitch again.

The 41-year-old, who opened up about his shoulder condition on his blog several weeks ago, wants to make the best of his most-likely swan song season in 2008.

Man, we like Schill. This whole thing is such a bummer we can’t even find anything snarky to say about it.

No about Schilling, anyway. We can point you to this funny post about the general cluelessness of Julian Tavarez, a contender to replace Schilling in the rotation. (And while we’re at it, can someone please show that guy the wonders of exfoliation? Seriously, Tavarez has the worst skin in the MLB.)

 . . . at least until the All-Star break, that is. The 41-year-old Red Sox pitcher has a partial tear in his rotator cuff. Schilling is not having surgery but will work on rehabbing the shoulder for now.

The buzz in Beantown concerns #38’s contract and whispers that the Sox “at least inquired about the possibility” of his $8M deal being voided.

Curt Schilling and the Red Sox have yet to comment. Keep your eye on Schilling’s blog, where the straight-shooter may talk about it in the coming days. 

We’re bummed, as Schill’s among our fave players. Ah, you know what? We’d rather have a pudgy, outspoken, twilight-years pitcher on the injury list than a pudgy, outspoken, twilight-years pitcher giving a 5-hour deposition before a congressional committee.

But maybe that’s just us. 

Randy Hendricks, agent to Roger Clemens, can now add “Defender of the Rocket” to his business card.

Hendricks released an 18,000-word statistical report today in response to former trainer Brian McNamee’s allegations that the would-be Hall of Famer jumped on the steroid bandwagon. Fortunately, we’ve taken the time to decode and summarize the whole shebang for you in three words: “Roger Ain’t Guilty.”

To what does Hendricks attribute Clemens’Energizer Bunny-like career? Good ol’-fashioned adjustment. (Is it too silly for us admit to thinking about jock straps upon seeing the words “baseball player” and “adjustment” in the same article?). Hendricks says the Cy Young winner tossed in a “very effective split-finger fastball to offset the decrease in the speed of his regular fastball caused by aging.”

Hey, at least Clemens is lucky enough to have Hendricks and the occasionally-less-than-above-board Scott Boras in his corner.

Will the Cy Young winner prevail or is this a case of creative statistics? Time will tell. And if it doesn’t, we can always hope our fave pitcher Curt Schilling will shake things up on his blog.

Sure, we poked fun at Roger Clemens the other day. And yes, we rah-rahed Curt Schilling for calling The Rocket on the artificial turf.

Get it? Instead of calling him on the carpet? We know, we know. All those cookies and all that fudge sapped our ability to make halfway decent puns, ok? Things will get back to normal once we leave the Sunshine State. We think.

And now, Clemens has fired back at the steroid abuse allegations stemming from the Mitchell Report. We can’t embed his “Hey, don’t look at me” video because Roger opted take the wind out of all bloggers’ sails by turning off the embedding capabilities in You Tube. (That’s us pretending to get technical in order to cloud the probably-dead-on suspicions that there’s a way around it but we just don’t know how). 

However, you can find Roger’s video (1m, 48s), in which the superstar pitcher maintains his innocence, here on You Tube as well as on The Roger Clemens Foundation site. He mentions a readiness to chat things up with Mike Wallace of 60 minutes after the New Year.

That’s fine, and no offense to Mr. Wallace, but we would much rather see Curt Schilling do the interview . . . 

Who knew that the goodfellas over at eTrueSports double as go-to guys for last-minute gift ideas? Head to your nearest GNC and ask if they have this just-hit-the-shelves dietary supplement. Get it while you can!

We’re not the betting type, but if we were, we’d wager our soon-to-be Santa swag that Curt Schilling won’t be finding this under his tree.

We haven’t yet touched on that White Elephant known as the Mitchell Report, but the time is right now that Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has made things interesting.

You know how Roger “The Rocket” Clemens said “nuh-uh” in response to steroid accusations? Well, our pal (and “ah, if only” dinner date) Curt Schilling blogged about it yesterday. Here’s some of what he had to say:

Roger has denied every allegation brought to the table. So as a fan my thought is that Roger will find a way in short order to organize a legal team to guarantee a retraction of the allegations made, a public apology is made, and his name is completely cleared. If he doesn’t do that then there aren’t many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and 3 Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end. From that point on the numbers were attained through using PED’s. Just like I stated about Jose [Canseco], if that is the case with Roger, the 4 Cy Youngs should go to the rightful winners and the numbers should go away if he cannot refute the accusations.

As an aside, we’ve always been able to identify most steroid users by their appearance. Their necks tend to look like pythons in the midst of digesting a hearty meal of antelope.

But to Schilling’s post we say, way to throw down the gauntlet. Let’s see if The Rocket will be man enough to pick it up. 

“Auld Lang Syne,” champagne, and ball-dropping (not that kind! Unless you come in from the cold . . .) are just a few weeks away. Know what that means, kiddos?

It’s New Year’s Resolution time! And in 2008, yours truly is aiming higher than a pre-rehab Lindsay Lohan.

The goal: To have dinner with our favorite re-signed free agents, Red Sox players Curt Schilling and Mike Lowell. Significant others included, natch.

The reason: Schilling is the man behind the Legendary Bloody Sock of 2004, a highlight in Red Sox lore. Lowell was the 2007 World Series MVP. And both proved to Beantown that a fatter paycheck wasn’t enough to lure them to another team. 

The setting: The Capital Grille, a high-end steakhouse on Newbury Street in Boston. My hubby and I dine there whenever we’re in town for a Sox game, so it’s only fitting. And what ballplayer doesn’t love a nice filet mignon? We’ll even pick up the tab!

Aw heck, we’ll provide the entertainment, too. We’ll hire these guys to swing by and perform a special song (1m, 37s) for the two guests of honor:

In truth, we’d settle for a round of Happy Meals at McDonald’s with our Sox heroes. Or even a drivethrough coffee run at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Do you think if we pinged Curt Schilling over at his 38 Pitches blog, he’d email us and say, “Heck ya, sweetcheeks! Make the reservation!”?

OK, maybe that’s a stretch. He probably wouldn’t call us “sweetcheeks.” But you never know . . .

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Psst . . . that was our Week 5 Project Blog entry. The challenge was to blog about a goal we have for 2008. Like our take on the theme? Cast your rah-rah Gossip on Sports vote here! Leave a comment there for your chance at this week’s prize.

* If you’re a New England sports fan or have the patience to tolerate one, through good times and bad.

1. Please. This item has the surprise element of Plan 9 From Outer Space, but we have to state the obvious: The Red Sox winning the World Series.

2. The Patriots making it 10-0. Pretty soon “Spygate,” if it hasn’t already done so, will become a synonym for ”pathetic attempt to debase those of well-deserved elite stature.” Sorry—and we hope faithful reader Les, a known Bills fan from Grand Island, will forgive us for this one—but a quick, informal poll indicates that we aren’t feeling guilty about “running up the score,” either. In fact, we like it. A lot.

3. The Celtics going 8-1. We aren’t even pouting about that two-point loss to the Magic last night. Why? Because it’s fun to see headlines with the word “finally” in it, as in “Celts Finally Lose.” Ha! Do we know how to make lemonade out of lemons or what? We find reasons to be cocky even when our teams lose!

4. The Red Sox signed Curt Schilling. The bloody sock, the candor with the press, the game face, the 38 Pitches blog with page views so astronomical yours truly would consider getting a dog just to do the drooling over it. (Hey, you don’t think we would actually do the drooling ourselves, do you? It would completely mess up the red lipstick. Not cool). Schilling is part of Red Sox lore, plain and simple.

5. This one is hot off the press courtesy of Bacchus: The Sox signed Mike Lowell! You hear that, that collective “ouch”? That’s the sound of thousands of Sox fans doing roundoff backhandsprings of joy, only to realize they didn’t warm up and pulled a hamstring. It’s worth it, though, because Lowell rocks.

That reminds us, didn’t Fox Sports keeping playing “Cleveland Rocks” during the ALDS?

Looks like NEW ENGLAND is the place to be instead! We’re so happy about Lowell that it didn’t even ruin our day when we learned A-Rod got the AL MVP.

P.S. Less than 24 hours to vote for Gossip on Sports and enter to win a bracelet at Project Blog! You don’t want to see us get booted, do you? (Oooh, don’t answer that . . .)