Baseball

Schilling: 'I don't have any choice' about rehab

Red Sox pitcher knows that opting for shoulder surgery could end career

Brita Meng Outzen / AP

Curt Schilling, 41, said Monday he knows if he doesn't pitch this year, he might never pitch again.

Henry said he didn’t think Schilling deceived the team about his health.

“I have no reason to believe at this point that any such thing occurred,” the owner said.

Schilling said he took about five weeks off after the season before throwing in mid-December when the shoulder “felt like it was August again. It didn’t hurt but it felt crappy.”

He rested some more before throwing again in early to mid-January.

But, “I just couldn’t play catch,” Schilling said. “When I went home that night it was painful just laying around. It was aching, almost like a toothache.”

At one point, he said, he felt “there was some belief” by the club that he would have surgery on his own. But “I assured anybody I was talking to that I would never do that.”

So now Schilling is rehabbing and hoping to play in the 21st season of a career in which his 3,116 strikeouts are 14th most in baseball history and his 11-2 postseason record is the best of any pitcher with at least 10 decisions.

He has a career record of 216-146 with a 3.46 ERA and an award as co-MVP of the 2001 World Series. And he was instrumental in the Red Sox championships of 2004 and 2007.

Now he can’t even throw a ball without pain.

“I’m disappointed that after 21 years my career might end like this,” Schilling said. “And if I never pitch again, as disappointing as it may be, I have no regrets about everything that I’ve been able to experience.”

Notes: Henry said he was sure manager Terry Francona, in the final year of his contract, would get a new one but “I don’t know when.” ... CF Jacoby Ellsbury and RF J.D. Drew arrived at camp. The first workout for position players is Friday.

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