Curt Schilling says he lost Hall of Fame votes because he’s a Republican
Curt Schilling doesn’t believe in evolution, but he apparently believes this: Some Hall of Fame voters didn’t put a checkmark next to his name because he’s an outspoken Republican.
Well, that’s certainly one theory, Curt, isn’t it?
There’s a legitimate reason to wonder why Schilling didn’t get anywhere near the support from voters that John Smoltz did. Their numbers aren’t that different, except for Smoltz’s save total.
Smoltz was elected on his first ballot, earning 82.9 percent of the vote. Schilling, meanwhile, got 39.2 percent on his third ballot. The JAWS Hall of Fame evaluation method, however, says Schilling is better than Smoltz, 64.5 vs. 54.2 on the JAWS scale.
Schilling appeared Wednesday on Boston radio station WEEI, telling the Dennis and Callahan show that he thinks his political leanings certainly didn’t help. Asked why Smoltz did so much better than him on the ballot, Schilling said:
“The fact that [the Braves] won 14 straight pennants. I think his ‘Swiss Army knife versatility,’ which is what somebody said yesterday. I think he got a lot of accolades for that. I think he got a lot of recognition for that. He’s a Hall of Famer. The other big thing is, I think he’s a Democrat. I know that as a Republican that there’s some people that really don’t like that.”
Lest you think Schilling was just joking or being goofy, he was asked in a follow-up whether he thought he would have gotten at least 100 more votes if weren’t an “outspoken Republican.” His response:
“Absolutely. When human beings do something, anything, there’s bias and prejudice,” Schilling said. “Listen, nine percent of the voters did not vote for Pedro. There’s something wrong with the process and some of the people in the process when that happens. I don’t think that it kept me out or anything like that but I do know there are guys who probably will never vote for me because of the things I said or did. That’s the way it works.”
Schilling is outspoken about this beliefs — any ol’ belief really, not just politics — but he did publicly endorse George W. Bush during the 2004 election against John Kerry. But let’s be real: the logjammed Hall of Fame ballot, which was deep with starting pitchers, had more to do with Schilling’s vote total than anything about him personally.
We’re not going to sit here and say Hall of Fame voters don’t have odd agendas. There’s the guy who thought Pedro Martinez was a “punk,” for example. But picking on someone’s politics seems iffy.
Even though it might not always seem like it, our nation is pretty evenly split, thus the pool of American baseball players is the same. Has there been a problem of Republican players getting Hall of Fame votes before? Not that we’ve heard of. Tom Glavine’s a Republican, maybe just not as outspoken about it. Nolan Ryan is. Many athletes are, just like many citizens of this country.
Not voting for Schilling because he’s a Republican would be like giving him a sympathy vote because he recently beat cancer — in this conversation, neither matters.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
