He'll have plenty of time to level up his Blood Elf.

I don't even know what a Blood Elf is. You'd have to ask my husband, since our marriage has room for but one WarCraft geek. That's not my point.

My point is this: after publicly fighting the Red Sox and the team's doctors about the necessity of shoulder surgery at the beginning of the season (They thought he'd be fine with rehab. He and his doctors disagreed. We have all wasted a whole lot of time and money on this silly little rehab project.), Curt from the Car announced today that he'll be undergoing 'season ending' surgery next week.

Absolutely no one should be surprised that the...opinionated and vocal, shall we say, Schilling announced his surgery plans on his blog, 38 pitches.

Now, this particular Bitch is a Red Sox fan, through and through. I'm feeling pretty okay with this news. I mean, yes, Schill was part of the two most recent World Series Champion teams (nope. That never gets old.) but...okay, I'm going to be frank. He's also sucked. A lot. Like, since 2005, he's done a whole boatload of sucking.

Now, that's not all his fault. He was injured, for one thing, and, well, let's just say it: he's old. He hasn't had a solid fastball in more than three years, and he's had to use his famous studying patterns just to help him fool hitters with a sackful of junk pitches. It hasn't always worked, either. I went from being solidly confident in every Schilling start to mildly concerned to emulating his treatment of Mitch Williams- putting a towel over my head so I didn't have to watch the inevitable horror. Sure, he's thrown some gems in the intervening years, but not that many, and they were few and far between.

But some of it was his fault. The Red Sox were so concerned about his physique that they padded his extension with incentives for showing up to Spring Training at playing weight. He made the decision to hold this surgery off- had he had it back when it was firt suggested, he might be pitching after the All Star break this season.

Now? I'm hard pressed to see any way that this isn't career-ending surgery, rather than simply season-ending. He's a 41 year old pitcher having surgery on his shoulder. That's not something that you just bounce back from, and Curt's had a history of slow returns from injury. Hell, I was surprised that he decided to come back to pitch this season. (Not that he's actually thrown a single pitch for the Sox, but whatever.) It might be unfair, but it wouldn't be untrue to say that he's old, he's fat, and he can't pitch any more, so it's probably time to hang it up.

At this point, I have to say that I think he's done, unless he signs a short-term, Lieberthal-esque deal so he can retire as a Phillie, and I don't even think that's particularly likely- more on Curt's end than on the part of the Phillies. (The Phils are so desperate for solid pitching that I heard they tried to sign Charlie Sheen, provided he remembered to wear his glasses.)

It's the end of an era, sure, but it's just that. The end. Thanks for the rings, Curt. They're kinda pretty.