Curt Schilling has had enough.
On Tuesday, the outspoken MLB pitching great shared a letter he wrote to the Baseball Hall of Fame after falling short to vote for the ninth year in a row.
“I will not participate in the last year of voting,” he wrote in the message shared on Facebook. ‘I request to be removed from the vote. I’m going over to the veterans committee and men whose opinion really matters and who are able to actually judge a player. “
The Hall of Fame board said it would consider Schilling’s request.
Schilling, along with Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, were the top three votes in 2021, with none reaching the 75% vote mark on BBWAA ballots. Schilling was the closest with 71.1 percent.
“I don’t think I am a hall of fame, as I have often said,” he continued, “but if former players think I am, I will accept that with honor.”
The 54-year-old, who pitched for five teams in a 20-year MLB career – won World Series titles with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 and the Boston Red Sox in 2004 and 2007 – won 216 games with a 3.46 career ERA, a to 3,116 strikeouts, making it 15th of all time. Where he stood out was in the postseason, where he collected an 11-2 record in 19 starts, including a 4-1 score and a 2.06 ERA in seven World Series starts.
Schilling’s post-baseball life is controversial. He was suspended from ESPN’s Little League World Series appearance after comparing Muslim extremists to Nazi-era Germans in a tweet. His later Facebook post about transgender people caused his dismissal from the network.
A day after the attack on the Capitol he wrote on Twitter: “You cowards sat on your hands, did nothing while liberal looted and burned garbage for air Jordan and big screens, sit back…. and watch people confront (expletives) those things like rights, democracy and the end of government corruption. “
Ballots were already due at the time of the attack.
In recent years, he has spoken out against the media, which he believes has painted him unfairly.
“The media has created a Curt Schilling that does not exist and never has,” he wrote. “It’s one of the things that allowed me to sleep at night. Not one shred of that is to redeem myself from sin, Lord knows I have committed my part and I will do that again. Never maliciously, never intentionally or intentionally hurt another. I was 100% responsible and still am. Even the thought of responding to claims of ‘Nazi’ or ‘racist’ or any other term so watered down and made meaningless by spineless cowards who have never met me makes me sick. In modern times, the claim is somehow confirmed by responding to such nonsense. “