Curt Schilling was one of the best major pitchers of his era and is one of the most appalling former athletes of any era.
He had a career win-loss record of 216-146 and struck out 3,116 hitters, pitching for Baltimore, Houston, Philadelphia, Arizona, and Boston. He led Philadelphia to a world series and then won world series championships with Arizona and Boston. His career win-loss record of 11-2 in the playoffs is one of the best in history.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schilcu01.shtml
After leaving baseball, he started a video game development company, 38 Studios. In 2011, he convinced Rhode Island to invest in his company. The state issued $75 million in bonds so Schilling could move the company from Massachusetts to Rhode Island.
Schilling’s company went bankrupt in 2012 and this led to the collapse of Rhode Island’s already-struggling economy. Rhode Island’s former Gov. Lincoln Chafee called the state’s financing of 38 Studios “the worst investment that’s ever been made, I think, in the history of Rhode Island.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/business/curt-schilling-rhode-island-and-the-fall-of-38-studios.html
In 2014 Schilling – a creationist and born-again Christian – argued vehemently that evolution was a myth.
“We didn’t evolve from another creature, never happened and none one earth (sic) can prove it did.”
When Schilling says he did not evolve, I believe him.
He has spent the last decade of his life making a convincing argument that he is not the product of evolution.
ESPN suspended Schilling, who was a commentator with the network, in August 2015 for comparing extremist Muslims to Nazis on social media.
The tweet, which Schilling reportedly deleted minutes after posting, was accompanied by a picture of Hitler that stated, “It’s said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?” Schilling also wrote: “The math is staggering when you get to true #’s.”
Schilling, in a rare demonstration of shame, tweeted an apology “I understand and accept my suspension. 100% my fault. Bad choices have bad consequences and this was a bad decision in every way on my part.”
https://ew.com/article/2015/08/25/curt-schilling-suspended-espn/
ESPN then fired Schilling in April 2016 for attacking transgender individuals by posting a cartoon that showed an overweight man wearing a wig and women’s clothing with parts of the T-shirt cut out to expose his breasts. The drawing says: “LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die.”
To that, Schilling added: “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”
A month after losing his job with ESPN, Schilling endorsed Donald Trump in a 1500-word post – in which the bankrupted pitcher praised the many times-bankrupted real estate developer for his business acumen.
“I’ve known Mr. Trump for a little over a decade,” Schilling said. “I realized very quickly this was a man decisive in action and confident in his ability.”
Schilling provided three reasons why he’s in Trump’s camp.
“I trust him.”
“He loves this country.”
“I firmly believe that to know the real heart and soul of a man you look at his children.”
Schilling apparently is aware of Trump children other than Donald Jr., Erik, or Ivanka.
All three of the reasons Schilling gave are not reasons for endorsing Trump; they are reasons for disqualifying him.
Trump endorsed Schilling’s run for Congress in Arizona “as terrific” even though Schilling was a resident of Massachusetts.
Schilling’s credentials for political office were the same as Trump’s – bankrupted businessman, obnoxious lout, and bigot.
The Jewish magazine, The Jewish Chronicle, ran a headline for a story on Schilling’s possible run for Congress with the headline, “Trump endorses Nazi Memorabilia collector for Congress.”
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/trump-endorses-nazi-memorabilia-collector-for-congress-1.487462
In 2015, Boston magazine did a story on Schilling’s extensive collection of Nazi memorabilia, including Nazi uniforms and swastikas.
Brown University professor Omer Bartov was quoted in the article as saying that the former pitcher’s collection appears to include uniforms worn by SS divisions and Hitler’s personal bodyguards.
“I’ve noticed that there is some kind of fetish with Nazi uniforms,’’ said Bartov, who was identified as an authority on genocide. “If these people only knew how much innocent blood was spilled by the wearers of these elegant uniforms they might take pause. Or not.’’
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/08/25/heres-curt-schillings-nazi-memorabilia/
Schilling decided not to run for Congress, he said, to spare his wife and children the grief and scrutiny that already came with having him as their husband and father.
In November 2016, Schilling seemed to call for the lynching of journalists in a tweet. “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some Assembly Required.”
Schilling then added: “Ok, so much awesome here . . .”
Schilling then teased a Senate run in Massachusetts a couple years later but then again said no.
“I can’t commit the time,” Schilling said. “If I wasn’t going to be able to be ‘all-in’ from a commitment stand point, then there was absolutely no way I was going to do it. Maybe it’s naïve or ignorance, whatever you want to call it, but I was going in thinking I could actually win this thing and what that would mean.”
“Maybe it’s naïve or ignorance.”
My money is on ignorance.
And maybe repugnance.
Few athletes are more hated than Schilling.
Schilling was voted the least popular player in the history of the Arizona Diamondbacks — even though he helped the team win their only world series title.
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Schilling came in fourth on a GQ magazine’s “Ten Most Hated Athletes’ List.
He’s somebody who’s always positioning himself in terms of what’s best for Curt Schilling,” said ESPN’s Pedro Gomez to GQ. “He’s the consummate table for one.”
Schilling – like Trump – continues to post messages on social media long after most people wanted to see them.
And like Trump, Schilling said it was not right-wing, pro-Trump hate groups but members of Antifa that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in hopes of stopping the certification of 2020 presidential election.
This is Schilling’s tweet.
“You cowards sat on your hands, did nothing while liberal trash looted rioted and burned for air Jordan’s and big screens, sit back, stfu, and watch folks start a confrontation for shit that matters like rights, democracy and the end of govt corruption. #itshappening”
I have no idea what he said, and there is, as of yet, no Schilling-English translation dictionary.
Schilling, while perhaps wearing one of his Nazi uniforms to put him in mood, reposted a tweet in September 2023 that asked why Jews had such influence in the United States even though they didn’t discover the country.
“Firstly, how does this extremely tiny minority find itself in such influential positions, leading, and in many cases, dominating important sectors of a nation, in such disproportionate numbers compared to their population, when they didn’t even found said nation?”
This argument, while patently anti-Semitic, came as welcome news to Native Americans.
In the same week that praised the Nazis, he also said way too much about a friend’s cancer diagnosis.
Schilling’s Boston Red Sox teammate Tim Wakefield and his wife were both diagnosed with terminal cancer and asked friends to keep the news to himself. Schilling then revealed Wakefield’s condition without either Wakefield’s or his family’s permission. In the days before Wakefield’s death, his family had to address an unwanted intrusion into the former pitcher’s health.
On September 28, 2023, the sports website, Dead Spin, posted a headline that said, “Curt Schilling is having a Hall of Fame Week at Being Human Scum.”
https://deadspin.com/curt-schilling-tim-wakefield-cancer-nazis-red-sox-1850883996
Wakefield died on October 1, 2023.
Schilling found himself unemployed and unemployable in the mainstream media, which refused to air the ravings of raving bigot. But Schilling then found working for Brietbart and then Blaze TV, where the ravings of a raving bigot were not merely tolerated, they were encouraged.
As good as Schilling was as a pitcher, he is worse as a human being.
To make matters worse, Schilling, a born-again Christian, uses his Christianity to justify his abhorrent beliefs.
One self-professed Christian website said this about Schilling:
“Curt has certainly had to come to grips in his life with many different opinions that people have of him. Many of these opinions, according to Curt, are not based on fact. But he believes you have to remember who you are ultimately accountable to.
“’Life gets a lot simpler when the only opinion that matters is God’s.’”
Is there any evidence that Schilling has ever listened to God?
