Curt Schilling is not allowed to decide whether to stay in the Baseball Hall of Fame vote. The board of directors of the Hall is also not allowed to decide. Schilling has to stick to the vote for a simple reason: because it is in the rules of the room.
The Rules for the Election of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, listed on the Hall’s website, includes the following passage on how a six-member screening committee of writers shapes the vote:
The task of the Screening Committee is to compile a ballot list in alphabetical order of eligible candidates who (1) have received a vote of at least five percent (5%) of the votes cast in the previous elections or (2) qualify for the first time and are nominated by two of the six members of the BBWAA screening committee. ”
Nothing in the rules says that the candidates or the venue itself can override those two paths, so the discussion …