On Thursday, Fox Sports 1 “The Herd” host Colin Cowherd weighed in on the MLB Hall of Fame balloting, saying the sports media is keeping pitching great Curt Schilling off their ballots because of his outspokenness on social media regarding his politics.
“The political media’s trust is at an all-time low, and sports media I think continues to dip because of agendas,” Cowherd stated. “Curt Schilling is a borderline Hall of Famer. I’ve always said I would put him in simply because he elevated not one but two baseball cultures: the losing Red Sox who had a loser’s mentality and the irrelevant Arizona Diamondbacks. He led both to World Series titles, and I think he changed the culture. Curt Schilling, though, you can argue like a Mike Mussina, if he is not a Hall of Famer, he’s darn close.”
He continued, “Schilling has now gone on social media and become a little unhinged and has been, what I would say, a little inappropriate. There is nowhere a voter is asked to consider somebody’s post-baseball personality. In fact, the rules say voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the team on which the player played. It says nothing about once you retire.”
According to Cowherd, these agendas by the media only contribute to the public’s lack of trust.
“This is how you lose the trust of the public — when you start voting on things you’re not asked to consider and you have an agenda,” he added. “I don’t like what Curt Schilling said about the media, but I know I’m not asked to consider it voting for the hall of fame. It never says, ‘Consider post-baseball integrity.’ It never says that. It says consider it on your team or plural teams. If you didn’t consider it with Jackie Robinson and Ty Cobb, don’t go political with Curt Schilling.”
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