Curt Schilling for the Hall of Fame? It’s a topic that’s come up frequently among Red Sox fans since the 41-year-old righthander underwent successful right shoulder surgery on Monday afternoon.

While the prognosis is better than anticipated, Schilling won’t return to the major leagues next season, if at all.

So if this, indeed, marks the end of Schilling’s career, what follows is consideration of where he stands among pitchers of his time and of all-time.

His regular-season numbers are more than respectable, enough to send him to the All-Star Game six times. The 1986 Boston draft pick is 70 games over .500 for his career with a 3.46 earned run average, but his 216 victories are on the low end for starting pitchers now in the Hall of Fame.

And the majority of his success has come over a relatively short seven-year period.

From his first major league pitch as a Baltimore Oriole in 1988 through 2000, he was a moderately successful 110-95.

Since then, he’s 106-51 with three 20-win seasons and three World Series rings, one with Arizona (2001) and two with the Red Sox (2004 and 2007).

He also shared World Series MVP honors with Randy Johnson after the Diamondbacks defeated New York Yankees in the 2001.

But since back-to-back 20-win seasons with Arizona in 2001 and 2002, his yearly win totals have been quite inconsistent – 8, 21, 8, 15 and 9.

Of course, offsetting any negative numbers is his career 10-2 record and 2.23 ERA during postseason play, a level of clutchness that on its own makes his strongest case for induction.

But the baseball Hall of Fame is about career achievement or Roger Maris would have been inducted by now.

And the facts show that while the latter half of Schilling’s career may merit Hall of Fame status, the entirety of his career falls short.

He has never won a Cy Young Award as the best pitcher in his league for any single season, and statistically he compares with the likes of Kevin Brown, Bob Welch, Orel Hershiser, Mike Mussina, John Smoltz and David Cone. Of that group only Smoltz and Hershiser will be subject to similar Hall of Fame debate.

Only 61pitchers currently are in the Hall of Fame, and just because Schilling helped end the Curse of the Bambino while wearing a bloody sock, does that make him one of the 60 best pitchers of all time?

Schilling also faces another issue, one not totally dissimilar to what many Red Sox fans believe has prevented Jim Rice from taking his place in the Hall of Fame – media relations.

While some fans speculate that Rice’s sometimes surly attitude has prevented him from getting enough votes, Schilling’s media relations may work against him.

He has been known to play favorites much to the ire of others, and these days saves much of his best stuff for his own Web site, 38pitches.com.

He has also come across as arrogant in some instances, but it’s that same arrogance he displayed in a Ford truck ad upon being traded to the Red Sox in 2003 – that he was coming to Boston to win a World Series – that helped change the defeatist culture among Red Sox Nation.

Making such a decision based on media relations or arrogance would represent the height of pettiness among Hall of Fame voters, but it’s a possibility that must be considered.

Ultimately it won’t matter. Schilling has the credentials on the field for a spot in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, but not quite Cooperstown.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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