Curt Schilling has had enough.
On Tuesday, the MLB free kicker shared a letter he wrote at the Baseball Hall of Fame after falling short in voting 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 the removal of the ballot. I will defer to the veterans’ committee and to the men whose opinions matter and who are in a position to really 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 voters in 2021, and none garnered 75% of the votes on the BBWAA ballots. Schilling was the closest with a 71.1 percent.
“I don’t think it’s a hunger hall, as I’ve often stated,” he continued, “but if former players believe I am, I’ll accept it with honor.”
The 54-year-old, who pitched five teams over a 20-year MLB career, winning World Series titles with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 and the Boston Red Sox in 2004 and 2007, won 216 games with a career ERA of 3.46. 3,116 bouts, good for the 15th of all time. Where he stood out was in the postseason, where he compiled an 11-2 record in 19 outings, including a 4-1 record and an ERA 2.06 in seven World Series outings.
Schilling’s post-baseball life has been controversial. He was suspended from an ESPN concert at the Little League World Series after comparing Muslim extremists to Nazi-era Germans in a tweet. His subsequent posting on Facebook about transgender people led to his dismissal from the network.
A day after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, he wrote on Twitter: “You cowards have sat on your hands, you have done nothing while the liberal garbage was looted and burned by the air of Jordan and the big screens, you will sit … and watch as people begin a (expletive) confrontation that matters like rights, democracy and the end of government corruption. “
The ballots had already been defeated at the time of the attack.
In recent years, he has criticized the media, which he says has painted him unfairly.
“The media has created a Curt Schilling that does not exist and has never existed,” he wrote. “It’s one of the things that has allowed me to sleep at night. Not a gram of this is to absolve me of sin, Lord knows I have committed my share and I will do it again. Never malicious, never intentionally or intentionally injuring another person. I was 100% responsible and I still am. Even the thought of responding to claims of “Nazi” or “racist” or any other term so watered down and left meaningless by thornless cowards who have never known me makes me sick. In modern times, responding to this drivelity validates the claim in some way. “