Yesterday, a group of sportswriters voted David Ortiz into the Hall of Fame. They did this even though Ortiz tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003, around the time he transformed himself from a below average hitter to a star.
In other Hall of Fame news, Curt Schilling fell well short of the number of votes required for admission because woke sportswriters with ballots don’t like his politics. Here is what I wrote on the subject when Schilling — or rather the voters — fell short last year.
Schilling should view his exclusion as a badge of honor, and there is reason to believe he might. After last year’s vote, he asked that his name be withdrawn from this year’s ballot — the last one he is eligible to appear on.
Baseball’s Hall of Fame has become a joke. It’s a waste of time to discuss it.
However, this is a good time to celebrate Curt Schilling’s accomplishments. His career WAR (wins above replacement player) is 80.5. That’s just behind Bob Gibson and just ahead of Tom Glavine and Carl Hubbell. All three are generally considered upper tier Hall of Famers.
Like Gibson, Schilling boasts an exquisite post-season record. He went 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP (walks plus hits over innings pitched) in 19 starts and 133.3 career playoff innings. Schilling won three World Series rings, was named MVP of the 1993 NLCS, and co-MVP of the 2001 World Series (with Randy Johnson).
Schilling engaged in no baseball-related misconduct that could justify his exclusion. He didn’t throw games like Shoeless Joe Jackson. He didn’t bet on games like Pete Rose. There is no hint that he used performance enhancing drugs, as there is with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and newly-elected Hall of Famer David Ortiz.
The left has marched steadily through our institutions — academia, the media (including sports pages), the corporate world. Now it has marched through the Hall of Fame.
Baseball fans should no longer take the Hall seriously. Conservative fans should ignore it entirely, except as a vehicle to remind ourselves once a year of Curt Schilling’s Hall of Fame-worthy career.
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