Curt Schilling Falls Short Of Hall, Asks To Be Taken Off Ballot

Red Sox icon Curt Schilling is asking to be removed from the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot after a near-miss in this year's voting.

Schilling said in a lengthy letter to the Hall that he also posted on Facebook he is "mentally done" after being shut out by writers he believes are holding his controversial post-playing career against him.

Schilling received 71.1 percent of the votes, just 16 votes shy of being immortalized in Cooperstown and more than anyone else in a rare year when no one reached the Hall's 75-percent vote threshold. Most players who get to 70 percent end up making the Hall; Schilling has just one year of eligibility left before he is considered by the Hall's veterans' committees.

The 54-year-old has been criticized for his public and social media comments since he retired after the 2007 season.

"As I’ve stated often over the past years to those I’ve spoken with in my heart I am at peace," Schilling said in his letter. "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."

Schilling was fired from ESPN in 2016 after posting an offensive meme about transgender people. Later in the year he tweeted a photo calling for the lynching of journalists and baselessly called a New Jersey fatal train accident terrorism, saying those who criticized his opinion were "safe space needing liberal cowards."

He's remained outspoken on social media, including tweeting support of the U.S. Capitol riot earlier this month.

But the three-time World Series champion maintained he shouldn't be lumped into a group of great players that are being shut out of the Hall in part because of its character clause. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, among the greatest hitters and pitchers to ever live, are linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

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

Schilling has not been considered a slam dunk to make the Hall of Fame even separate of his controversy, but he enjoyed a sometimes dominant career and became an instant folk hero when he helped will the Red Sox past the Yankees in their 2004 curse-breaking championship season. His "Bloody Sock" game in Game 6 of the ALCS is among the region's all-time sports moments.