Schilling falls 16 votes shy of HOF in 9th year

PHOENIX -- For Curt Schilling, the ninth time was not the charm as the former D-backs right-hander fell 16 votes short of being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

For the first time since 1960, the Hall of Fame will not have a new group of electees this year.

It was Schilling's ninth year on the ballot, and by rule, he will have one more chance to be voted in by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. After that, his fate will be in the hands of various historical committees.

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In a letter sent to the Hall of Fame on Monday, Schilling wrote that if he was inducted he wanted to wear a D-backs hat on his plaque.

"I’ve chosen Arizona as the team I would have represented if I had been inducted," Schilling wrote.

Randy Johnson, who was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2015, is the only former D-backs player to be inducted.

As part of that same letter to the Hall of Fame, Schilling said he did not want to be considered for induction next year.

"I will not participate in the final year of voting," Schilling wrote. "I am requesting to be removed from the ballot. I’ll defer to the veterans committee and men whose opinions actually matter and who are in a position to actually judge a player. I don’t think I’m a Hall of Famer as I’ve often stated but if former players think I am then I’ll accept that with honor."

The Hall of Fame has not commented on whether Schilling can take himself out of consideration.

Schilling received 285 votes, which represented 71.1 percent of the votes cast. A player must get at least 75 percent to be inducted.

Last year, Schilling received 70 percent of the vote and this is the third year in a row that the has had the most votes of a person not elected. No player on this year's ballot reached 75 percent.

Schilling received 38.8 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility in 2013, but his totals began to rise dramatically in recent years.

Schilling’s tenure in Arizona began prior to the Trade Deadline in 2000, when the D-backs acquired him by sending Omar Daal, Nelson Figueroa, Travis Lee and Vicente Padilla to the Phillies.

Schilling was good, not great, in 2000 for the D-backs, but he more than made up for that over the rest of his time in Arizona. In 2001-02, he combined to go 45-13 with a 3.10 ERA and a 148 ERA+. Schilling not only racked up the strikeouts with 609, he managed to walk just 72 over that span.

And the bottom line is the D-backs don’t win the World Series in 2001 without Schilling.

He tossed a pair of complete games against the Cardinals in the National League Division Series, allowing one run over 18 innings. He had another complete game in his lone appearance against the Braves in the NL Championship Series, allowing one run. In three World Series starts against the Yankees, he compiled a 1.69 ERA.

Schilling was named co-MVP of the World Series along with Johnson.

“No doubt,” said Luis Gonzalez, Schilling’s teammate in both Houston and Arizona. “This guy was one of the most dominant pitchers in our era. When you talk about Hall of Famers, I look at how he was in his era. Who were the guys in that era that you absolutely didn’t want to face, and he was certainly one of those guys.”

Schilling missed time in 2003 due to an appendectomy, and he was dealt after that season to the Red Sox, where he would go on to further make his Hall of Fame case.

Schilling’s regular-season accomplishments were impressive (216-146, 3.46 ERA, 3,116 strikeouts), but it was his utter brilliance in the postseason that truly sets him apart.

In the pressurized environment of the playoffs, Schilling made 19 starts, going 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP.

“He turned it up to another level in the postseason,” said Gonzalez, who drove in the game-winning run in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. “He did it with the Diamondbacks, he did it with Boston, and he did it in Philly, too. He’s one of the best postseason pitchers in baseball history, and that’s what we all play for -- to get to a World Series. We all know Curt always shined his brightest when he was on the big stage.”

Schilling was also known for taking the ball when he was hurt and finding a way to win despite the circumstances.

The most well-known instance came in the 2004 postseason while with the Red Sox. Schilling started Game 6 of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium with a loose tendon in his right ankle that had to be surgically repaired before the start.

Blood soaked through his sock, but Schilling managed to hold the Yankees to one run over seven innings. The Red Sox won that game and then went on to win Game 7, as well as the World Series for the first time since 1918.

Schilling’s preparation for his starts was second to none. In the era before advanced metrics were prevalent, Schilling would pore over video of opposing hitters, keeping detailed notes in a large spiral notebook.