Three-time World Series-winning champion Curt Schilling says he would have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame already if he wasn’t so outspoken about his conservative views.
Mr. Schilling, who now hosts an internet radio show on Breitbart News, called some of the Hall of Fame voters “scumbags” and “the worst human beings I’ve ever known.”
“They’re not hiding the fact that they’ve stopped voting for me because of the things I’ve said in social media,” he told TMZ in a video posted Monday. “That’s their prerogative as voters.”
“The people who said they’re not going to vote for me are not going to vote for me because of the character clause,” he added.
Mr. Schilling, who was fired from ESPN last year due to controversial posts on social media, sparked outrage again in November when he praised a T-shirt that joked about lynching journalists. The former Red Sox pitcher told TMZ that he would have been a major hit among Hall of Fame voters if only he had called for the lynching of President-elect Donald Trump.
“They pick and choose when they use the character clause,” he said. “I promise you, if I had said, ‘Lynch Trump,’ I’d be getting in with about 90 percent of the vote this year.”
Rule 5 of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s election requirements, or the “character clause,” says, “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”
The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy wrote in November that he was invoking the character clause in not casting a vote for Mr. Schilling, Boston magazine reported.
“Schill has transitioned from a mere nuisance to an actual menace to society,” Mr. Shaughnessy said. “His tweet supporting the lynching of journalists was the last straw for this voter.”
It appears unlikely that Mr. Schilling will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Jan. 18. He’s received about 54 percent of the vote, according to a public ballot tracker, but needs 75 percent to be inducted.
