It’s pretty safe to say that Curt Schilling owns one of the most significant signature moments in the history of not only the Red Sox, but Boston sports in general.Think about it for a minute or two. We have Ted’s 521st, Flutie’s Hail Mary pass, Havlicek/Bird stealing the ball, Fisk’s home run, Eruzione’s goal, Orr’s Cup-winning goal, Vinatieri’s Super Bowl-winning kick, The Bloody Sock, and ?. and ?Schilling, who announced his retirement earlier Monday, was only here four seasons. And in that time, he was certainly a larger-than-life representative of all “the Modern Athlete” has become. He was very definitely a one-man brass band ? baseball’s Dr. Phil, if you will. He called talk shows and engaged the buffoons in debate, often sounding like one himself. He had his own blog so that he could present himself, unfiltered by the media, to the fans.The man could be so insufferable at times that it was tempting to dismiss him simply as a bigmouth and a fraud ? until he got on the mound.Because if you judge him solely on his ability to pitch, then Curt Schilling is one of the most significant short-timers ever to set foot in this city.He’d have had that distinction if he’d only stayed one year, provided that year was 2004. The Red Sox pried him loose from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the wake of their crushingly disappointing loss to the New York Yankees in the 2003 ALCS. They gave up four players to get him, none of whom are under Major League contract as we head into the 2009 season (though two, Casey Fossum and Brandon Lyon, have carved out decent careers).Schilling came to Boston with the promise of “ending a curse;” and if you have to ask “which curse,” then you can forget about going any further here. He went 21-6 in ’04, and was one of the few constants in a season that was so unsuccessful, at one point, that the Red Sox had to peddle Nomar Garciaparra – one of the faces of the franchise – to their National League counterparts (that would be the Cubs).Of course, by 2004, having a decent regular season wasn’t going to cut it. The Sox came within five outs of winning a pennant in ’03, when managerial bungling sank that ship. Nothing short of a pennant, and beyond, would do in ’04.And for Schilling, the post-season almost ended before it started. In Game 1 of the ALCS, he was rocked, and come to find out the tender ankle he’d been pitching on all season had given out completely. Oh, there was some medical explanation for (the sheath that held the tendons had torn), but the prognosis was that he was done. Then Dr. Bill Morgan came to the rescue.Morgan must have watched a lot of M.A.S.H. episodes in his life, because he jury-rigged a surgical solution to the problem. He sutured the tendon sheath in place, and had Schilling ready to pitch Game 6 of that series in Yankee Stadium. That there even was a Game 6 is another story entirely. But there was, and Shilling was out there pitching it with an Ankle that Jack Built.During the game, the sutures broke and blood oozed through his sanitary sock, creating a Boston Sports Stigmata for the ages. He pitched six innings, the Red Sox won the game, won Game 7 and the pennant, and breezed through a four-game World Series sweep (with Schilling repeating the whole process in Game 2 at Fenway).He paid dearly for this. Off-season ankle surgery was extensive, and he was ineffective in 2005. While he started strong in ’06, he faded down the stretch and didn’t even make his final start.A year later, he was spotty. He almost pitched a no-hitter in July against the A’s (broken up by Shannon Stewart’s base hit with two outs in the ninth), but was on the shelf for over a month with a sore arm.When he returned, he’d basically gone from being a power pitcher to a “finesse” pitcher. But he got it all together for the post-season, winning three games and helping the Red Sox win their second World Series.Is he a Hall of Famer? Of course he is. Schilling was a clutch post-season pitcher (he was 11-2 in October