On Tuesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America released their 2019 Hall of Fame voting results. Four players -- Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina, Edgar Martinez, and Roy Halladay -- surpassed the 75-percent threshold and will be officially inducted into Cooperstown in July. Rivera became the first player to be unanimously selected to Cooperstown.
Curt Schilling, one of the ballot's most controversial figures, did not make the cut. He did, however, make gains in what was his seventh year of eligibility. Schilling received 60.9 percent of the vote, a new personal best as well as the most by any player who wasn't inducted.
Here's a look at how Schilling has fared year-by-year since becoming eligible:
- 2013: 38.8 percent
- 2014: 29.2 percent
- 2015: 39.2 percent
- 2016: 52.3 percent
- 2017: 45 percent
- 2018: 51.2 percent
- 2019: 60.9 percent
Schilling is now less than 15 percentage points away from induction with three more years of eligibility. Modest, attainable annual gains would deliver him to Cooperstown. That seems particularly doable now that the ballot has thinned out a bit. If we had to guess, we'd guess that he will indeed be inducted at some point over the next three winters.
The catch is that part of what makes Schilling controversial is his presence on social media. It's at least possible he tweets something that causes voters to reconsider their position. Of course, that Schilling gained support this year suggests that might be an overstated concern.
