Curt Schilling has had it with the Hall of Fame voters.
In a letter he posted to Facebook on Tuesday, the former pitching great told the Baseball Hall of Fame that he wants to be off the ballot next year.
In this year’s voting released Tuesday, Mr. Schilling got the most votes of any player, appearing on 71.1% of the ballots from the Baseball Writers Association of America. But for the ninth straight year, he fell short of the 75% threshold for induction.
“I will not participate in the final year of voting,” Mr. Schilling wrote in the message, which was written before the results were announced but he apparently had gotten wind of what they’d be.
“I am requesting to be removed from the ballot. I’ll defer to the veterans committee and men whose opinions actually matter and who are in a position to actually judge a player,” he said, referring to the Veterans Committee, which reconsiders the candidacy of players not elected by the writers.
Mr. Schilling’s lengthy Facebook post accused the baseball writers of distorting his character and trying to destroy him because of his outspoken conservative political beliefs.
The 54-year-old pitcher struck out more than 3,000 batters and won 216 games with a 3.46 career ERA over 20 years in Major League Baseball with several teams.
As good as he was in the regular season, he was one of the greatest postseason pitchers in history, perhaps most famously in the “bloody sock game” in the 2004 American League Championship Series for the Boston Red Sox.
He compiled an 11-2 record in the post-season, including a 4-1 mark and 2.06 ERA in the World Series. He led two teams to World Series titles — that 2004 Red Sox team and the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, when he and Randy Johnson were named co-MVPs.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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