Curt Schilling: Hall of Fame Snubbed Me for Being Republican

On Tuesday, Curt Schilling was denied entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame for the third year in a row and he shared some thoughts about the “snub.” The former pitcher claimed that being a “high-profile” Republican caused some HOF voters to leave him off their ballots.

Schilling speculated in an interview with Boston radio station WEEI yesterday and asserted that new Hall of Famer John Smoltz got the votes because of his Democrat leanings.

“[Smoltz] is a Hall-of-Famer. And I think the other big thing is that I think he’s a Democrat, and so… I know that as a Republican, that there’s some people who really don’t like that,” Schilling said.

(Smoltz donated to Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012.)

The hosts went along with Shilling’s claim, saying: “If you’d just said, ‘vote Kerry,’ you might be in the Hall of Fame right now.” To which Schilling responded, “Absolutely.”

Schilling’s comments raised some ire on Twitter, to which the pitcher responded that he was only joking.