Schilling discusses HOF snub: 'I've never said anything racist in my life'

Curt Schilling wants everyone to know he isn't a racist.

Three days after being snubbed by Hall of Fame voters for the seventh time - falling short of the 75 percent threshold for enshrinement - the retired pitcher, who's a noted right-winger - discussed his exclusion and specifically addressed being penalized for his controversial political views.

"The baseball writers (who vote), I know them," Schilling said on "The Mut & Callahan Show" when asked to respond to Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy's comments on why he stopped voting for Schilling in 2017 after selecting him on four previous occasions.

"We're at a point in time now where the left has managed to marginalize me in the media. It's weird. People dismiss me out of hand as a racist. I've never said anything racist in my life. Ever."

Earlier this week, Shaughnessy explained his choice to leave Schilling off his ballot, saying, "It's not political with him. It's his menace to society part of his character which is troubling. Advocating lynching journalists. Calling Adam Jones a liar when he says someone dropped the n-word on him in Fenway."

Schilling's controversial past includes him tweeting an image in 2015 that compared Muslims to Nazis, which led to him being suspended from his job as an ESPN analyst.

The following year, he was fired by ESPN after sharing a Facebook post that many considered transphobic.

"That certainly has played a part in all this, and the only reason I say that is because people have said as much, voters," Schilling added of his political beliefs affecting his Hall of Fame chances. "It is what it is."

The former pitcher has three more years left on the HOF ballot. He saw a 9.7 percent increase in voter support this year while being selected on 60.9 percent of ballots.