curt schilling is in my hall of famer collection

do i think curt schilling should be in the national baseball hall of fame? yes, i do. do i think he is a jackass? yes, i do. still, he is now in my hall of famer collection with this card as his entry:

that's a 1998 donruss signature series autograph card. here's the back:

i went with schilling as a phillie since that was the uniform he was wearing when i first saw him pitch in person. it was opening day at dodger stadium in 1997, and i was sure to not miss it. schilling wound up stealing the show with 11 strikeouts over 8 shutout innings. he gave up only two hits and 3 walks as the phillies ruined my day with a 3-0 victory.

seeing that dominant performance, along with the fact that schilling has 3,116 career strikeouts, is what compelled me to add him to this collection. just as i had done with the 3,000 hit club members i had overlooked (like craig biggio) when putting my initial hall of famer collection together, i recently did the same for the 3,000 k club. schilling sits in 17th place, and of the 19 who have eclipsed that milestone, only four have done so while issuing fewer than 1,000 walks. schilling is one of them.

to me, 3,000 strikeouts is an automatic ticket to the hall of fame and i am left to believe that schilling was excluded by the writers because of his (in my opinion) ignorant and dumb takes on pretty much everything since he retired. they are certainly not worth rehashing here. still, i respect the talent and success that he had on the field and would expect that one day he gets enshrined in cooperstown.

you can see schilling and the other players in my hall of famer collection here!