Curt Schilling: "If I had said 'Lynch Trump' I'd easily make Hall of Fame this year"

“If I had said, ‘Lynch Trump,’ I’d be getting in with about 90% of the vote this year,” Schilling said.

After former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling called a t-shirt that advocated for the lynching of journalists “awesome,” Dan Shaughnessy said that he would no longer vote for Schilling on his Hall of Fame ballot this year.

Schilling acknowledged on Monday that Shaughnessy is not the only writer who has soured on his candidacy since the tweet.

Speaking with TMZ, he said that “scumbag” journalists would not have a problem with him if he had called for the lynching of President-elect Donald Trump instead of journalists.

“If I had said, ‘Lynch Trump,’ I’d be getting in with about 90% of the vote this year,” he said.

• JAWS and the 2017 Hall of Fame ballot: Curt Schilling

The 50-year-old also claimed that the “character clause” that many voters cite in their decision not to put him on the ballot is simply a front, and that writers “pick and choose” when to use it.

Schilling is entering his fifth year on the ballot. Last year, he garnered 52.3% of the vote, well shy of the 75% needed to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

Ryan Thibodaux’s ballot tracker, which has collected 37.5% of all ballots, currently has Schilling needing votes from over 87% of remaining ballots to get in.