ESPN Strikes Out Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling

On Wednesday evening, ESPN announced it had terminated Curt Schilling as a MLB analyst following repeated political discourse on his Facebook feed, which some tabbed as hate speech.

The post showed an overweight man wearing a wig and women’s clothing with parts of the T-shirt cut out to expose his breasts. It says: “LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die.”

To that, Schilling added: “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”

Said the company in a statement: “ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”

According to si.com, Schilling met with ESPN management on Wednesday in Bristol, Conn., as he was scheduled to work Baseball Tonight on Wednesday night. The company declined to say the executive that delivered the news, but no such decision would be made without the approval of ESPN President John Skipper and ESPN Executive Vice President of Programming and Production John Wildhack.

It was to be the last strike for Schilling, the accomplished former Red Sox and Diamondbacks right-hander who has encountered numerous controversial moments since being hired by ESPN in 2010.

Last year, ESPN suspended Schilling after he posted a meme on his Facebook page that compared Islamic extremists to Nazis. His suspension led to Jessica Mendoza’s addition to the “Sunday Night Baseball” booth as his eventual full-time replacement.

But Schilling refused to change.

“There are things I have deeply held beliefs in, things I have that are core to who I am, things I am passionate about,” he wrote. “If you ask me about them it’s likely I’ll give you a passionate answer, whether you like that answer or not is completely up to you. I am not going to give you answers to make sure you like what I say, let the rest of the insecure world do that.”