Last Start at the Vet: Curt Schilling’s Game-Worn Phillies Jersey From July 7, 2000

Curt Schilling spent nine seasons in Philadelphia, and for most of them he was the best pitcher in town by a wide margin. He arrived in 1992 and was the face of the staff a year later, when the Phillies went from last place to the World Series. He earned 1993 NLCS MVP honors with a 1.69 ERA and 19 strikeouts, then, with the Phillies facing elimination in the World Series, he threw a five-hit shutout in Game 5. The teams that followed didn’t win much, but Schilling kept pitching like an ace. By 2000 the club was out of the race, and everyone knew his time was running out.

This game-worn jersey comes from his last start at Veterans Stadium. On July 7, 2000, he took a 2-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles despite going the distance, allowing two runs with eight strikeouts and one walk. It was a fitting way to say goodbye: a complete game, and no help from the offense. Less than three weeks later, the Phillies traded him to Arizona, and the return was Travis Lee, Vicente Padilla, Omar Daal, and Nelson Figueroa. The rest of his career went about as well as it could. He shared the 2001 World Series MVP with Randy Johnson and later pitched the “bloody sock” game for Boston in 2004. This is the jersey from the last time Phillies fans saw their ace pitch at home, from the end of the nine-year era that made him a star.