Curt Schilling blasts Baseball Hall of Fame after falling short, requests off 2022 ballot

close

Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for January 26

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

Curt Schilling, a three-time World Series champion, fell 16 votes shy of the 75% mark that would have made him a Hall of Famer this year.  For the second time in the last eight years, no MLB players will be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Schilling will have one more opportunity next year to make it to Cooperstown, but the former ace for the Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Boston Red Sox wants his name removed from the ballot.

On Tuesday, following the announcement that no MLB players will be elected into the Hall of Fame in 2021, Schilling shared a letter that he wrote to the Baseball Hall of Fame after missing enshrinement for a ninth consecutive year.

"I will not participate in the final year of voting. I am requesting to be removed from the ballot," Schilling wrote on his Facebook. "I’ll defer to the veterans committee and men whose opinions actually matter and who are in a position to actually judge a player. 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."

Schilling pitched for 20 MLB seasons, had 216 career wins, with a 3.46 ERA, and 3,116 strikeouts. He finished second in the Cy Young voting three separate times.

Schilling is most-remembered for pitching Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees with a bloody sock, which derived from an ankle tendon injury, and the bloody sock was a byproduct of the stitches pressing against his tendon. The Red Sox ended up winning the game, and eventually put an end to their 86-year wait for a World Series title.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Ever since Schilling retired from baseball as a player, he’s been surrounded by controversy.

First, he was suspended from ESPN while at the Little League World Series after he sent out a tweet comparing Muslim extremists to Nazi-era Germans. He was eventually fired from the network after he made a comment on hiis Facebook regarding transgender people.

When people attacked the US Capitol a few weeks back, Schilling immediately took his thoughts to Twitter regarding the topic.

"You cowards sat on your hands, did nothing while liberal trash looted rioted and burned for air Jordan’s and big screens, sit back …. and watch folks start a confrontation for (expletive) that matters like rights, democracy and the end of govt corruption," Schilling wrote at the time.

Schilling added in his Facebook post regarding the Hall of Fame that he’s "at peace."

NO PLAYERS ELECTED INTO NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME FOR 2021

"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," Schilling wrote. "I’ve certainly been exposed to racism and sexism and homophobia as it’s part of who human beings are. I’ve played with and talked with gay teammates. I’ve played with wife beaters, adulterers, assaulted, drug addicts and alcoholics. I’ve never hit a woman, driven drunk, done drugs, PEDs or otherwise, assaulted anyone or committed any sort of crime.

"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."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Schilling continued: "I will always have one thing they will forever chase. A legacy. Whatever mine is as a player it will be the truth, and one I earned for better or worse.

"Having said all that the media has created a Curt Schilling that does not and has never existed. It’s one of the things that has allowed me to sleep at night. Not an ounce of that is to absolve myself of sin, Lord knows I’ve committed my share and will do so again. Never malicious, never to willfully or intentionally hurt another person. I was 100% accountable and still am."