Philadelphia.Phillies.MLB.com

By Ken Mandel / MLB.com

Brett Myers lost last year's showdown with friend Curt Schilling. (Miles Kennedy/AP)

And it had nothing to do with the 14-9 shellacking handed to the Phillies that day by the Cubs.

Sometime before that game, general manager Ed Wade announced that the Phillies had traded ace Curt Schilling to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a five-player deal. It was a sad day for most Phillies fans, but one they understood.

Four years later, the Phillies have injured No. 3 starter Vicente Padilla to show for it, and the righty has won 14 games two straight seasons. Schilling has a World Series ring from 2001 with the Diamondbacks and has since moved on to the Red Sox.

He starts Sunday against Brett Myers, who considers Schilling a good friend. The two met last season, with Schilling pitching Arizona to a 2-0 win. Myers said then that the start was like any other, and expects Sunday's to be the same.

But it isn't for Schilling, who made public overtures about wanting to come back to Philadelphia. Wade said the Phillies explored the possibility, but it didn't get very far.

"Curt would have been a good fit for our club," said Wade. "Obviously, he expressed an interest in coming back to us, but there were a lot of moving parts to this. So we went somewhere else and used different components and got Eric Milton, and he's 9-2."

Major League tour for EZ: Sitting in the fabled dugout, Elizardo Ramirez could barely comprehend the latest stop of his month-long tour -- Fenway Park.

Unfamiliar with the history and stories behind baseball's oldest Major League park, Ramirez could still appreciate where he was, another big-league city.

"I haven't heard that much about the park, but this time in the big leagues has been like magic," he said through an interpreter. "It's amazing every time I go to another city."

Ramirez said all this on Saturday, as he was demoted to Double-A Reading. A series of events led to his Major League rise from Class A Clearwater on May 23, and his stay was originally supposed to be a short one.

It lasted 34 days and allowed the rookie to see cities like Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis and Boston. Visa problems prevented him from seeing Montreal. He had barely heard of those places when the season started.

Though Ramirez said he liked Chicago the best, he said he spent about 20 minutes looking out of his 20th floor window after arriving in Boston.

"It was incredible to see so many lights and so many people," he said. "I never imagined this."

"He's been on all four corners of the universe, and the way that he's handled things has been exceptional," said Wade. "When you go to A-ball and bring a kid up, you can't have very high expectations of what he's going to do. He's had some successful moments. My hope is that he takes this as a learning experience and builds upon it. Maybe this accelerates his progress because he's gotten a taste."

The taste included facing big-league hitters and learning from experienced players like Roberto Hernandez and Amaury Telemaco, who routinely took him out on the town. At times, teammates bought him new duds to take with him to the minors.

"He'll be styling in Reading," said Bowa.

If Ramirez had regret, it's that his parents never got to see him pitch, either in person, or on television near his hometown in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. A neighbor saw him once, but that's about it. The Phillies are making a tape of his outings, so that will have to do -- until his return to the big leagues.

"They have seen me in the newspaper," he said with a laugh.

Because he hasn't been a regular member of a starting rotation for a month, it will likely take him some time before he can work deeper in games. The Phillies will consider sending him to Winter Ball to get him stretched out for the spring, and give him a few more innings.

But for now, Ramirez will savor the experience.

"This is something I'll never forget," he said. "Now I know what it's like. I'll go down and do my job. I still have a lot of work to do. When there's another opportunity, I want to be the one they call."

Philling in: Billy Wagner wasn't surprised by the blockbuster trade made by the Astros that landed center fielder Carlos Beltran from Kansas City.

"They're panicking," he said, referring to Houston's position in fourth place. "I'm happy for (Octavio) Dotel. He's going to do well there. He's a great pitcher. I knew he would do well there this season, and I know he'll do well in Oakland."

Wagner also raved about catcher John Buck, one of the players dealt to Kansas City in the trade.

Ken Mandel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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