Baseball Hall of Fame vote ends with NO new entrants this year as Trump-supporter Schilling asks to be axed from ballot
THE BASEBALL Hall of Fame announced that no new players will gain entry into the Hall this year as noted Trump-supporter Curt Schilling removes his name from the ballot.
“I will not participate in the final year of voting,” Schilling wrote, explaining why he took his name out of the hat. “I am requesting to be removed from the ballot.”
“I’ll defer to the veteran’s committee and men whose opinions actually matter and who are in a position to actually judge a player,” Schilling said. “I don’t think I’m a Hall of Famer, as I’ve often stated, but if former players think I am, then I’ll accept that with honor.”
The Baseball Hall of Fame announced Tuesday that neither Schilling nor other controversial players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens will be admitted into the prestigious academy.
Schilling came up 16 votes short when the Hall of Fame voted on Tuesday, gaining only 71.1 percent of the 75 percent needed to be entered.
Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the board for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, wrote in a statement that “the Board of Directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame sets the rules and procedures for the BBWAA balloting process.”
“The Board has received Curt Schilling’s request for removal from the 2022 ballot, and will consider the request at our next meeting,” Clark ended.
Schilling wrote he didn’t want to be lumped into the same party as Bonds and Clemens, who have used performance enhancing drugs during their careers.
“But I’m now somehow in a conversation with two men who cheated, and instead of being accountable, they chose to destroy others’ lives to protect their lie,” Schilling wrote.
“I will always have something they forever chase,” Schilling wrote. “A legacy.”
Schilling, a noted Trump supporter who has made anti-Muslim and anti-transgender remarks, was found to be in possession of Nazi memorabilia five years ago.
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“I know math and I know trends and I know I will not attain the 75% threshold for induction,” Schilling said. “As I’ve stated often over the past years to those I’ve spoken with in my heart I am at peace. Nothing, zero, none of the claims being made by any of the writers hold merit.”
“In my 22 years playing professional baseball in the most culturally diverse locker rooms in sports I’ve never said or acted in any capacity other than being a good teammate,” he ended.
It was the first time the Hall of Fame did not induct a player into the Hall of Fame.