Can Former Baseball Star Curt Schilling Be an All-Star Conservative Politician?

How ex-MLB star pitcher became a right-wing social pundit, Breitbart talking head.

Curt Schilling's Reinvention as a Right-Wing Troll
Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling (center in 'Make America Great Again' hat) poses for a group photo with supporters at the conclusion of an appearance at a Republican Party office in Salem, NH to stump for the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump on Oct. 18, 2016. (Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

A number of professional athletes have successfully made the switch to politics—Jim Bunning, Jack Kemp, Bill Bradley, and Steve Largent would make that Hall of Fame.

But arguably none of them came at politics with the pedigree—both negative and positive—of former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling. The three-time World Series winner, who owns the  coveted 2004 World Series ring won as the ace of the Red Sox at the time (see: “the bloody sock”), also won an MVP award. He’s also a member of the 3,000 strikeout club.

All in all, he put together a Cooperstown–worthy career.

But a trip to the Hall will likely never happen because of Schilling’s off-field antics—especially those since his retirement from the game in 2007.

He’s made remarks on TV and social media that have been condemned as racist, antisemitic, and homophobic (one of which got him fired by ESPN).

All that added up to a second life in retirement as a Breitbart talking head, and now has him mulling a potential Senate run against Elizabeth Warren next year.

Schilling seems unapologetic about his seeming fall from grace. “The thing is, I’m not going to shut up. I don’t owe anybody anything. If I have to shut up to get in the Hall of Fame, then I don’t want in,” he told Esquire in a new feature.

But he then seems to contradict himself in saying, “Given how much I talk, it’s amazing that I haven’t ruined myself.”

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