Baseball: The radicalization of Curt Schilling – Salt Lake Tribune

For Schilling, a conservative loudmouth known for calling into radio talk shows during his time with the Philadelphia Phillies, speaking out was nothing new. But the high-profile Bush endorsement made politics part of Schilling’s brand — one which led to an ESPN commentator job that ended Wednesday after Schilling tweeted an image of a man apparently in women’s clothing that many deemed transphobic amid an ongoing debate about transgender bathrooms.

“Let him in!” the tweet read. “To the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow minded, judgmental, unloving, racist bigot who needs to die!!!”

After he was excoriated online for the tweet, Schilling went fangs out.

“This is likely the easiest way to address all of you out there who are just dying to be offended so you can create some sort of faux cause to rally behind,” Schilling wrote on his blog. “Let’s make one thing clear right up front. If you get offended by ANYTHING in this post, that’s your fault, all yours.”

ESPN, apparently tired of dealing with Schilling after comments comparing Muslim extremists to Nazis and the observation that Hillary Clinton “should be buried under a jail somewhere,” declared the game over.

“ESPN is an inclusive company,” the network said in a statement emailed to The Washington Post, as Des Bieler reported. “Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”

The outcome seemed destined. In past decade, Schilling has been talking louder and louder about topics less and less related to baseball. And while his colorful color commentary may be loved by as many who loathe it, it’s made it harder for him to be part of a pastime that, at least in theory, belongs to everyone in the country.

After his “GMA” endorsement of Bush, Schilling did backpedal a bit. Though he was scheduled to appear with the president in New Hampshire, he pulled out of the appearances at the last minute, claiming ankle problems even as some wondered whether the Red Sox, whose owners backed the Democratic candidate, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, had silenced him.

“Speaking as I did the other day was wrong,” Schilling said in a statement. “. . . It’s not my place, nor the time for me to offer up my political opinions unsolicited.”

This humility was short-lived. Schilling ended up recording radio spots for Bush.

“These past couple of weeks, Sox fans all throughout New England trusted me when it was my turn on the mound,” Schilling said in one ad that ran in Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. “Now you can trust me on this: President Bush is the right leader for our country.”

Bush lost all the states where the ad ran, but Schilling only seemed emboldened. If his strong criticism of steroid use before Congress in 2005 couldn’t really be characterized as political, the blog he launched in 2007 was.

“In my 20 years of baseball, I’ve been misquoted three or four times, and for someone who talks as much as I do, that’s incredible,” Schilling said at the time. “But I’ve been misinterpreted a billion times . . . If I’m going to take s–t for something I said, it’s going to be something I said.”

When Twitter was barely out of the womb, this was novel. An athlete talking directly to the people? Crazy! Schilling wrote, at great length, about “why the media sucks.” He wrote about being a Christian. And though, asked to discuss politics, he said the blog wasn’t “isn’t a forum to do that” . . . it sort of was.

“Just hear Senator McCain speak,” Schilling, who stumped for the Arizona senator, wrote in January 2008 ahead of the candidate’s loss in the South Carolina primary. “He may not give you the answer you are looking for, he may not be in agreement with you on a stance or an issue, but the man is honest to a fault.”

There was even talk that Schilling should run for Sen. Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts seat after his death in 2009. Schilling eventually said a run “just doesn’t make sense” and endorsed Scott Brown, but laid out his political philosophy as he mulled the choice. He was “independent,” he said — but was pro-life, was against gay marriage, would like lower taxes, and was “absolutely for the 2nd Amendment.”


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