Today my mom was complaining about Curt Schilling for some reason or other. We were able to come up with the conclusion that, without the two most notorious BS'es of Mariano's career, Curt Schilling would be, in no way, as well-regarded as he is.
2001 - If Mariano saves Game 7, Schilling is just the guy who lost a pitchers' duel to Roger Clemens. Johnson and Schilling were so so so good in that Series, but I don't see whoever votes on the World Series MVP giving the award to two guys on a losing team. It probably goes to, yup, Mariano.
2004 - This one is especially fun to play the "what if" game (and it doesn't make me want to punch a wall now that we actually won a World Series, yay!). If Mo completes that save in Game 4 or Tom Gordon doesn't shit the bed in Game 5, things are very different...
A-Rod probably takes ALCS MVP and the Yankees, however flawed they were that season, likely beat the Cardinals in the World Series. Most NY fans worship Alex for pretty much single-handedly ripping through the Twins and Red Sox in the postseason, and for bringing them a World Series in his first year there.
On the other hand, to Boston fans, Curt Schilling becomes the mercenary who came to Boston and sure, he won 20+ games in the regular season, but in the postseason, when it really counts, all he did was get injured and then pitch terribly against the Yankees. We never see the bullshit bloody sock.* Schilling pitches well for the Red Sox when he's healthy, but he can't stay healthy all the time and it becomes obvious he's getting really out-of-shape. A lot of Sox fans complain that, for what they're paying for him, he shouldn't be in the bullpen or not pitching at all. The Sox win it all in 2007, but his contributions get dismissed because after all, wasn't it really Beckett that led them to a World Series?
So basically, Schilling becomes A-Rod, and A-Rod becomes Schilling, except A-Rod probably doesn't start a fucking blog just to talk about how awesome George Bush is and make snide comments toward Schilling. Did I just blow your mind? Yeah, probably not.
In conclusion, I shake my fist at Mariano for not blowing one save in the 1998 postseason and the 2002 postseason as opposed to the 2001 and 2004 postseasons. Not really, because Mo is totally awesome. But you know what I mean.
* While complaining today, my mom brought up the fact that she went to Cooperstown about a year ago, while I was in college, and saw the sock there and the blood on it is still quite red. Of course, she pointed out, if it was actual blood, it would have faded to brownish by now. I'm not saying Curt wasn't actually injured and that I don't tip my hat to him for pitching hurt (though honestly, if you're that hurt...), I'm just saying there's no way that was actual goddamn blood and you're never going to convince me otherwise.
