The National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2022 ballot came out earlier this week, and one member of the Baseball Writers Association of America immediately announced that he will not vote for former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.
Jose de Jesus Ortiz, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist who serves as the president of the Baseball Writers Association of America, voted for Schilling last year. Now, however, the liberal sports columnist announced that he won’t vote for the outspoken conservative this year.
“We can get this out of the way now: I will not vote for Curt Schilling this year,” Ortiz wrote Monday, November 22. “If the @baseballhall of Famers think he’s worthy, they can get vote him in on a veteran’s committee.”
He did not say why.
Ortiz’s announcement comes after Schilling got support from 71.1 percent of the voters last time around; players need at least 75 percent support to be inducted. In 2020, Schilling appeared on the ballot for the ninth time. This year, he’s on the ballot for the 10th and final time.
Ortiz has shown liberal political leanings on Twitter many times.
He’s not a fan of former President Donald Trump and had a lawn sign for Joe Biden last year.
“We have a new President-elect,” Ortiz tweeted after Biden won. “Let’s unite as a country and help heal the wounds. I had 1 Joe Biden signs stolen from my yard over the last 2 months, so we put 2 more out because we wanted our neighbors to know where we stood. We received this card in the mail this week. Peace.”
He also wasn’t a fan of having former Ohio governor John Kasich, a Republican, speak at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Instead, he thought liberal Democrat Julian Castro, who ran for president in the 2020 primary and served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Barack Obama’s administration, would have been a better choice.
“I just turned on the Republican convention, or so it seems,” Ortiz tweeted in August of last year. “I would have preferred to hear @JulianCastro . He would have inspired the next generation & a key constituency. Can we all agree the Republicans who don’t want Trump have already decided?”
On specific political issues, Ortiz has also sided with the left.
He supports a pathway to citizenship for many illegal immigrants
“This is wonderful news for America,” Ortiz tweeted in June of last year. “#DACADecision The Supreme Court has overturned Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which President Obama put in place for undocumented immigrants who came to this country as children.”
He also opposed the Trump administration’s decision to put restrictions on transgender people serving in the U.S. military
“I cannot be more clear,” Ortiz tweeted in 2017. “And on my personal Facebook I’ve been more adamant in my anger over Trump’s ban of transgender service members.”
Although Oritz holds left-of-center opinions, he insists that his opposition to Schilling isn’t because of policy disagreement or his support for Trump.
“It’s ridiculous to think I won’t vote for Curt Schilling next year because he’s a Trump supporter or because of politics,” Ortiz tweeted in January this year. “First of all, one guy on my ballot is a huge, open & proud Trump supporter. I think he belongs in the Hall & will continue to vote for him.”
Ortiz didn’t say which Trump supporter he meant. However, Ortiz voted in 2019 for longtime New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who supports Trump. (Rivera was elected that year.)
While Schilling’s political views have hindered his chances of being inducted into the Hall of Fame in the past, his defense of the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill earlier this year may cost him more support.
“You cowards sat on your hands, did nothing while liberal trash looted rioted and burned for air Jordan’s and big screens, sit back, [expletive acronym deleted], and watch folks start a confrontation for [expletive deleted] that matters like rights, democracy and the end of govt corruption,” Schilling tweeted. #itshappening.”
Five people died during or shortly after the riot, and 138 police officers were injured. It also resulted in four officers committing suicide, according to Reuters.
Those who stormed the Capitol wanted Congress and then-vice president Mike Pence to overturn the official results of the 2020 presidential election because they believed then-president Donald Trump’s claim that the election was stolen from him. The events that day led to Trump being impeached for the second time — the first time that ever happened to a U.S. president.
In the aftermath of January 6, there were reports that some writers reached out to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, hoping to amend their ballots so they could un-vote for Schilling earlier this year.
Schilling is a three-time World Series champion and struck out 3,116 batters in his career; it’s the most strikeouts for a non-performance-enhancing drug user who is not in the Hall of Fame.
Ortiz told NewBostonPost in an email on Wednesday morning, “I will write a column about my votes, as I do annually.”
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