Curt Schilling

What is athletic greatness if it doesn't have contagious properties? … The truly great ones in team sports make those around them better and, ultimately, make them champions. What [Randy] Johnson and Schilling did this year was take that force and raise it to the power of two. Each, thanks in part to the other, had the finest season of his life, and together they goaded a team that was a dowdy 43-56 when they didn't pitch to a world championship.

In only one full year Johnson and Schilling became as inseparable in perpetuity as [Sandy] Koufax and [Don] Drysdale, [Warren] Spahn and [Johnny] Sain, [Christy] Mathewson and [Joe] McGinnity and any other historic tandem of starting pitchers—except that in their case it does not matter which name you list first. Johnson (372 whiffs) and Schilling (293) struck out 665 batters, a record for teammates, and joined Lefty Grove and George Earnshaw of the 1930 Philadelphia Athletics, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax of the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers and Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana of the 1976 California Angels as the only members of the same staff to finish one-two in the majors in strikeouts. No two pitchers have been more responsible for a world championship since the five-man rotation became de rigueur in the 1970s, and few tandems have ever had their impact. Schilling and Johnson became only the eighth pair of teammates, and the first in 61 years, to each win 20 games for a world championship team and account for every one of its World Series wins.

Source: Verducci, Tom. Sports Illustrated, December 17, 2001, p. 112.