Phillies: Karma coming to help Curt Schilling on 2021 HOF ballot

Former Phillies ace Curt Schilling will have to wait another year for Cooperstown

There’s no denying former Phillies pitcher Curt Schilling, who missed the Hall of Fame class of 2020 by five percent, has the numbers to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He’s won 216 games, struck out 3,116 batters, and has an ERA+ of 127 in 20 seasons, pitching until he was 40-years-old and dominating in the later-half of his distinguished career. That 127 ERA+ is the same as Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, and Stan Coveleski’s.

His 3,116 strikeouts are 15th all-time, more than Jim Bunning, Mike Mussina, and, yes, even more strikeouts than Cy Young.

Schilling and Roger Clemens are the only inactive pitchers with more than 3,000 strikeouts not in the Hall of Fame.

In the postseason, there is no one better in the history of baseball when the lights come on in October. In19 postseason starts Schilling has a 2.23 ERA and helped three teams, including the curse-breaking Red Sox, win a World Series.

Everyone who watched Schilling will tell you that what he did on the mound was worthy of a Hall of Fame pitcher. However, when it comes to what Schilling did off the mound and on his Twitter account, the narrative changes.

Those who have and continue to keep Schilling out of Cooperstown are doing it for the questionable and sometimes greatly insensitive things Schilling has said on social media, some of which he has admitted were not the best to send out.

Still, a couple of hundred baseball writers have held this vendetta against Schilling for years hoping he never steps foot in the Hall of Fame.

Schilling will once again appear on the Hall of Fame ballot when they’re printed for the Class of 2021, and this time, he not only is likely to get in, but karma could swing his way and make him the lone-inductee.

After years of waiting because writers didn’t want to honor him, Schilling could potentially get an entire day in his honor in Cooperstown.

The only other players who received at least 60 percent on the 2020 ballot and didn’t get elected were Barry Bonds and Clemens. Like Schilling, they’ll also be on their ninth ballot with writers holding them out of the Hall of Fame, except for them it’s about what they did on the field with performance-enhancing drugs.

Philadelphia Phillies

Neither Bonds nor Clemens is expected to get into the Hall of Fame via the writer’s pen making a check on a piece of paper. That means the next closest returning player, Omar Vizquel, would have to make a 22.4 percent jump next year to be inducted. He jumped about 10 percent compared to last year, but with years of eligibility remaining, it’s unlikely Vizquel gets in next year.

After him, there are six players who received 20-30 percent who would have to make a historic jump to join Schilling in 2021.

It’s also unlikely a first-ballot Hall of Famer makes it next year with a freshman class likely headlined by Mark Buehrle, Corey Hart, and Tim Hudson.

Even the Veteran’s Committee, which will vote on the Golden Day’s Era, is uncertain to elect anyone. They’ll cover an era where, unfortunately, the players on the ballot who played from 1950-1969 are likely no longer living.

ESPN noted Dick Allen, Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat, and Minnie Minoso as potential candidates for the Golden Era ballot. Phillies fans will be rooting hard for Allen, who hit 351 home runs and won both the Rookie of the Year and MVP, will get in while he’s alive. Kaat is also still alive and has a shot, but unfortunately, Minoso passed in 2015.

None of those players are guaranteed to make it in 2021.

So while voters spend nine years trying to keep Schilling out of the spotlight, it’s possible he’s the only player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021, getting a day of his own in Cooperstown.