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MLB Hall of Fame 2017: 5 key takeaways from this year’s class

By Joshua Sadlock

Apr 1, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Former Montreal Expos player Vladimir Guerrero salutes the crowd next to Tim Raines during a ceremony before the game between teh Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 1, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Former Montreal Expos player Vladimir Guerrero salutes the crowd next to Tim Raines during a ceremony before the game between teh Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports /
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August 3, 2012; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox former pitcher Curt Schilling throws out a ceremonial first pitch prior to a game against the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
August 3, 2012; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox former pitcher Curt Schilling throws out a ceremonial first pitch prior to a game against the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Curt Schilling cost himself big time

Only three players in baseball history to top 50 percent of the vote at one time have failed to reach the Hall of Fame. Schilling will eventually become the fourth. The postseason hero turned right-wing nutjob dropped from 52 percent in 2016 to 45 percent this year. Make no mistake about it, Schilling’s insistence on sharing awful, xenophobic, Islamophobic, transphobic memes on social media and making ill-advised jokes about lynching journalists cost him a shot at the Hall.

Schilling has only himself to blame. He was a borderline candidate to begin with due to the fact that his peak as an elite pitcher was short. His case was mostly based on postseason heroics. It became too easy for writers to drop him from their ballots as he continuously spewed hateful speech online even after being fired from a job at ESPN. Schilling is now with Breitbart news.

Even after seeing his vote totals drop precipitously, Schilling was back at it again on Twitter, arguing with a parody account of Sidney Ponson. This drop will not be a one-year bump, either. Schilling will only continue falling until his ten years on the ballot are up. Meanwhile, noted adversary of the media, Jeff Kent, received only 16.7 percent of the vote. If Kent is being left off because he was prickly with the media for most of his career, that is an inexcusable invocation of the already flimsy “character clause” that governs the voting process.

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