Trump thinks Curt Schilling belongs in Baseball Hall of Fame

Jan. 21, 2019 10:20 AM PT

Curt Schilling is edging closer to being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he has a very powerful person taking up his cause.

President Trump.

This year’s induction class will be announced Tuesday morning, although voting closed weeks ago. That didn’t stop Trump from tweeting his support for the three-time World Series champion and outspoken conservative on Sunday night.

“Curt Schilling deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Trump tweeted on the same night Schilling appeared on Fox News’ “Life Liberty & Levin.” “Great record, especially when under pressure and when it mattered most. Do what everyone in Baseball knows is right!”

Schilling played 20 years in the major leagues, posting a 216-146 record and 3.46 ERA with 3,116 strikeouts. He was 11-2 in the playoffs and was the 1993 National League Championship Series MVP and 2001 World Series MVP.

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But Schilling has become a controversial figure after years of expressing extreme right-wing views. In August 2015, he was dropped from ESPN’s coverage of the Little League World Series and then suspended for the rest of the Major League Baseball season for tweeting a meme that compared Muslims to Nazis.

The following April, he was fired by the network after posting a meme widely interpreted as anti-transgender on his Facebook page. During the World Series in October, Schilling was not invited to take part in a ceremonial first pitch honoring members of the Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series champion team, even though he and his bloody sock played a key role in that title run.

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Schilling is in his seventh year of Hall of Fame eligibility, and the number of votes he receives each year continues to rise, according to Ryan Thibodaux, who does a great job tracking this sort of thing.

Trump may have been a bit too late to help Schilling’s cause this year, but the future White House hopeful thanked the president for his support.