There aren’t a lot of charmed stories in the Phils’ long and stupid history, so we can basically just say the year something happened and we’ll all know what we mean.  ’72? Steve Carlton. ’64? Black Friday.  ’93?  Joe Carter.

But before Joe Carter, there was an entire season of the most exciting Phillies baseball people had seen in years, and would not see again for almost a decade and a half.  Curt Schilling was one of the team’s major success stories, having a career year, despite some lagging in the middle, and in general contributing to the immense bro-grab that was that roster.

The video yearbook that year features a shot zoomed in on his hat Opening Day (as the Phanaic is skydiving in the first pitch).  ”WHATEVER IT TAKES,” it says.  And since then, I’ve yet to own a Phillies hat on which I didn’t etch the same thing.  Then I ruined a bunch of my hats by putting them all through the wash.  I forget why I did that.

Schilling has spent the last few months getting sued by the state of Rhode Island and tweeting pictures of his dogs as they grow to enormous size, most likely as a thinly veiled warning to any creditors thinking of approaching his property.

Bentley and Rufus today and 4 months ago twitter.com/gehrig38/statu…

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) May 21, 2013

Nowhere in that tweet does it indicate that they’ve stopped growing.

Anyway, if we can put aside his video game company being sued and the amount of money he owes people and just remember him as a roguish fiend of a baseball player; very emotional, at times juvenile, but unafraid and never intimidated.  He got his Ring elsewhere, eventually, and he did it by being a more matured version of the Schill we got, if always vocal and uncensored.

Which is why he’s a great pick for the Phillies Wall of Fame Induction this year.

I write with a childlike doofiness about it because I was a pretty doofy child and that’s how I remember his time with the Phillies.  I mean, the ending wasn’t so great.  And the years he was here were mostly not good years.  But if we were putting only championship guys on the wall, we’d be out of guys by now.

Now let’s all sit back and enjoy this news with a nice, quiet review of Curt Schilling’s Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

It was a long, hard fought battle yesterday.

What that battle was and who was fighting in it, we can’t say.  It may have looked like several players who have been linked to steroids and a bunch who weren’t and Aaron Sele were kept out of the Hall of Fame by a crew of baseball journalists who annually take on the self-appointed role as the moral police.  Aaron Sele was also kept out of the Hall of Fame by suspicions that he was Aaron Sele.

But that couldn’t have actually been what happened because with the attention the Hall of Fame ballot got yesterday, it had to be something a little less ridiculous than that.

It had to be.

Otherwise, we just spent most 0f the week making each other inconsolably upset in comment sections over a museum’s itinerary.

But remember, in the context of baseball, there’s no limit to curmudgeonly fear of change or–to be fair–PED use, but most of that was in the ’90s and you probably didn’t hear about it because, according to BBWAA writers, “It was the ’90s.”

As we all know, zero of the players on this year’s ballot–the Bonds, Bagwell, Sosa, Clemens, Sele ballot–got into the Hall of Fame, thanks to the voters of the BBWAA who wasted no time in hopping on Twitter after the announcement to pat themselves on the back or use those hilarious comebacks to the anticipated insults they came up with last night.

But just by judging the level of graphic violence that was being threatened by that standard internet collective who routinely go from “zero to murderous” during a debate, we can see an indication of how seriously this topic was taken.  And on the one hand, it is nice to reaffirm that so many people care about baseball so much.

From a Phillies perspective, the only long term team rep was Curt Schilling, who received a whopping 38.8%, a number which many have had far less than and still made it into the Hall in subsequent years.  Calling the experience “surreal,” Schilling’s MLB.com breakdown points out that he won the World Series every time he got to it, except once, with the Phillies.  Which was nice to remember.

On the other hand, it’s also important to zoom out, gain a little perspective, and remember that this is just a baseball museum that exists in a small, quiet New York town.  The Hall of Fame is not the last shuttle leaving earth, so by not getting in, no one is being pulverized by a meteor.  Everybody gets to live on and try again next year, when we’ll all race back to our keyboards to see who can be the most obnoxious about what we believe.

Oh sure, guys like Rico Brogna and Mike Lieberthal will get their share of votes, but let’s be honest, they probably fall just short of induction, am I right people?

Wow, I forgot what Schilling looked like in a Phils’ uniform.

Even the current core of Phils players, guys like Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard, are on the fringe at the moment, although Rollins and Utley could warrant consideration if they can hang on for another three or four years and continue to produce. Roy Halladay will almost certainly get in and Cole Hamels sure is on a trajectory towards enshrinement one day.

But a Hall call for those players is still a long ways off. On Wednesday, an entirely different batch of players will be eligible for the controversial baseball museum/enshrinement dome, with only one former Phillie having a realistic shot at receiving the call.

And no, I’m not talking about Dale Murphy (although I think Murph should get in, and no, not because his sons have been brow-beating us for the last two months).

Curt Schilling should be in the Hall of Fame. Yes, he was loud and abrasive and said controversial things and talked his way right out of town. The whole towel over the head thing in the ’93 playoffs was completely self-serving, and Schilling has always annoyingly tried to be the center of attention.

That is a KILLER mustache there, Curt.

And seriously, could you ever elect someone to the Hall of Fame with a mustache as horrifically poor as that?

In addition, many of his career stats don’t exactly scream Hall of Fame. He only has 216 wins for his career, and unfortunately, Hall of Fame voters still look at “win” totals as a qualification for induction. He also never won a Cy Young Award, although he did have three 20-win seasons and finished runner-up in the Cy voting twice (in 2001 to Randy Johnson and 2004 to Johan Santana).

However, his other numbers speak volumes. He recorded 3,116 strikeouts over his career (15th all-time). He struck out more than 200 batters five times, and had three seasons in which he struck out more than 300. And his strikeout-to-walk ratio was the best of any pitcher since 1900. (Stats there courtesy of ESPN’s Gordon Edes).

And while a player’s postseason statistics should never be the sole reason for induction, Schilling’s playoff history was remarkable (11-2 and a 2.23 ERA in 19 starts) and should be a consideration when used in concert with his regular season numbers.

As a Phillie, Schilling will always be remembered for his incredible run in the 1993 playoffs, in which he was NLCS MVP, posting a 1.69 ERA with 19 Ks in 16 innings, and had an epic Game 5 performance in the World Series that saved the Phils’ season, albeit temporarily.

Schilling, wearing the hat he should be sporting at his eventual Hall induction.

Not only that, Schilling pitched in an era of greatly increased offensive output, and still managed to post numbers that were far above league average.

When you break down the numbers that matter, Curt Schilling is an obvious Hall of Famer.

Of course, he likely will not be inducted this year. Only the true greatest of the greats are elected in their first year of eligibility. In fact, there is a chance no player is inducted into the Hall this year.

This year marks the first time that many players from the steroid era (Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, etc.) are eligible, and it’s likely none of them will get in this year.

The big question for Phils fans is, when Schill is eventually inducted into the Hall, will he go in as a Phillie?

When one thinks back on his career, the first team that jumps to mind is likely the Red Sox. Although Curt pitched more games for the Phillies than anyone else (226 games started, as compared to 107 for Arizona and 98 for Boston), Schilling was one of the centerpieces for the Red Sox’ historic win in 2004. The Bloody Sock Game is forever etched in baseball lore, and it is for those heroics he is most remembered.

He should go in as a Red Sock.

Even so, it was with Philadelphia that Schilling became a star pitcher while playing for some very poor teams. Even though he talked himself right out of town, Schilling should be remembered for his remarkable body of work while playing for the Phillies, and should be cheered with gusto by Phils fans when he is finally inducted.

And for the record, my Hall ballot for this year looks like this: Schilling, Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell, Larry Walker, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Dale Murphy, Craig Biggio, and Mike Piazza.

Not that anyone is going to keep this for their records or anything.

Good luck, Curt!