This year another $175,000 was raised, adding to the $3.7 million taken in during the previous 14 years the event has been staged. And there is something undeniably poignant about that. The Schillings have poured their hearts into this cause for years.
Still, it would be impossible for Schill to be in town a week after the Phillies won their first World Series in 28 years and not ask him about his reaction.
He helped create the set of circumstances that forced the Phillies to trade him to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the middle of the 2000 season. He went on to win a world championship there and then two more after moving on to the Boston Red Sox.
Even while all that was going on, though, he occasionally would muse aloud about coming back to the Phillies . . . or pitching the first game at Citizens Bank Park . . . or helping them capture that elusive trophy and taking the exhilarating ride down Broad Street.
"I was excited," he said. "We [he and wife Shonda] were both rooting for Philadelphia. I have some close connections with some people in the Tampa Bay organization, but we lived here almost 10 years. So the close connections we had spurred us on to be rooting for the franchise."
He'll be 42 when Opening Day rolls around next season and he's coming off shoulder problems that sidelined him all season. He says he doesn't know if he wants to continue but that, if he does, "Philadelphia would absolutely be one of the places I would consider. Arm feels great. Arm feels fantastic. Arm felt fantastic 2 or 3 months ago. I don't think that was ever the issue, whether it was going to feel good or not."
Can it be 15 years since Schilling dominated in the 1993 postseason, launching him into the upper echelon of pitchers?
