BBWAA requests Hall of Fame directors to keep Curt Schilling on 2022 ballot

The BBWAA isn’t letting Curt Schilling off the Hall of Fame hook that easy.

A day after the three-time championship pitcher asked the Hall of Fame to take him off the ballot in 2022, for what will be his 10th and final year of eligibility into Cooperstown, the Baseball Writers’ Association said Schilling’s request is a violation of the rules set forth by the Hall’s board of directors.

The BBWAA said in its recommendation to the Hall’s board of directors that Schilling should remain on the ballot. Hall of Fame board chairman Jane Forbes Clark said in a statement that the board would consider Schilling’s request at its next meeting. Schilling received the most votes (285) out of the 25 candidates on 2021′s ballot. He just missed the 75% threshold to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, receiving 71.1% and falling 16 votes short.

“The Hall of Fame assigned the BBWAA to be the electorate in 1936,” BBWAA secretary and treasurer Jack O’Connell said in a statement on Wednesday. “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’s gutsy outings in the playoffs (19 starts, 11-2 record, 2.23 ERA, 0.97 WHIP) helped lead to championships for the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001) and Red Sox (2004, ’07). His career regular-season performances (436 starts, 216-146 record, 3.46 ERA, 3,116 strikeouts) made him one of the most dominant pitchers of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Though Schilling’s numbers alone are impressive enough to make him a Hall of Famer, BBWAA voters have taken into account his post-athletic controversies (most recently, Schilling tweeted his support of the rioters who fatally attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6) which has led him to continuously fall short of induction. The BBWAA’s reluctance on voting in Schilling stems from the Hall of Fame’s “integrity, sportsmanship, character” clause when considering baseball players’ induction.

ESPN’s Buster Olney suggested in a tweet on Wednesday that moving forward, the Hall of Fame should apply that character clause itself. In essence, the Hall’s board of directors — which are now deciding whether to approve Schilling’s request to be removed from the ballot — should dictate which players have passed its character test before making them eligible for Cooperstown in the first place.

If that were to happen, other controversial players who are up for election like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens may see their chances of being inducted impacted due to use of PEDs. For now, though, it appears Schilling will join Bonds and Clemens in their final year of eligibility on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2022.