Baseball Writers Don’t Want to Remove Curt Schilling’s Name from HOF Ballot

Curt Schilling
Getty Images/Jared Wickersham

Curt Schilling responded to the snub by the Hall of Fame voting Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) with a snub of his own, requesting that his name be removed from the ballot.

Now, the baseball writers are snubbing right back.

Jack O’Connell, the secretary of the BBWAA, said on Tuesday night that his organization is opposed to Schilling’s request to have his name removed from the ballot.

O’Connell wrote:

 It is the position of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America that Mr. Schilling’s request to remove himself from the ballot is a violation of the rules set forth by the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s board of directors, who have commissioned the BBWAA to conduct the annual elections, specifically the following:

The duty of the Screening Committee (for the writers’ ballot) shall be to prepare a ballot listing in alphabetical order eligible candidates who (1) received a vote on a minimum of five percent (5%) of the ballots cast in the preceding election or (2) are eligible for the first time and are nominated by any two of the six members of the BBWAA Screening Committee.

Mr. Schilling has fulfilled both of those requirements and should remain on the ballot for consideration by the voting body for what would be his final year on the BBWAA ballot in 2022.

The Hall of Fame assigned the BBWAA to be the electorate in 1936. This association has abided by the rules for 85 years and shall continue to do so. The BBWAA urges the board to reject Mr. Schilling’s request.

Schilling was named on 71.1% of the ballots, falling 16 votes short of the required 75 percent.

Chairman of the Hall of Fame’s Board, Jane Forbes Clarke, also put out a statement.

“As you know, the Board of Directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame sets the rules and procedures for the BBWAA balloting process,” Clarke wrote. “The Board has received Curt Schilling’s request for removal from the 2022 ballot, and will consider the request at our next meeting.”

This all begs the question: Why would the Hall of Fame voters want to keep the name of a man they’ve voted against for nine years on the ballot?

Of course, there’s the chance that they just wanted to make Schilling wait it out before voting him in on his tenth and final year of eligibility. Or, they could want to retain him on the ballot to have the honor – in their minds – of bestowing the BBWAA’s official stamp of disapproval on chilling and his “evil” politics so that history will record their “righteous stand.”

Or, perhaps even more sinister, given Schilling’s request to be removed from the ballot, the voters may want to vote him in so that he has to publicly decline enshrinement. Thus allowing them to say that they did right by voting an obviously deserving player in, but putting the blame on Schilling for not accepting induction.

Either way, it doesn’t look like Schilling is getting in the Hall of Fame.

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