Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling does not expect to make the Baseball Hall of Fame this year despite his stellar career.
Schilling told TMZ his political statements on social media are likely to keep him out.
"They're not hiding the fact that they've stopped voting for me because of the things I've said on social media," Schilling said. "That's their prerogative as voters."
Schilling was fired as a baseball analyst by ESPN in April after a Facebook post on North Carolina's controversial transgender bathroom bill in which he opposed people being allowed to use a restroom that does not correspond with their biological gender.
He has since been given an online show on Breitbart radio and said he is considering challenging Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018.
Schilling backed Republican Donald Trump for president, and told TMZ that likely did not win him any friends among Hall of Fame voters when this year's inductees are announced Jan. 18.
"I promise you, if I had said 'Lynch Trump,' I'd be getting in with about 90 percent of the vote this year," Schilling said.
Voters opposed to Schilling are expected to use the Hall's character clause as their excuse, but Schilling said the clause is not used evenly.
"They pick and choose when they use the character clause," he said. "There are some of the worst human beings I've ever known voting. There are scumbags all across the . . . I don't want that to be the 'yeah, but' for me. If they don't believe my baseball talent merits me getting in the Hall of Fame then so be it."
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