Curt Schilling, a star pitcher who was in the Major Leagues for 20 years and a baseball analyst for ESPN, was suspended from his Little League World Series duty after sending a controversial tweet Tuesday.
The tweet re-posted a meme that reads: “It’s said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?”
The text was superimposed of a red-tinted photo of Adolf Hitler.
Schilling added, “The math is staggering when you get to true #’s.”
Schilling also shared the photo on Facebook, where the original post links to a video about the end times.
At first Schilling didn’t back off from his post, but eventually he said it was wrong to post the meme.
“I understand and accept my suspension. 100% my fault. Bad choices have bad consequences and this was a bad decision in every way on my part,” he wrote.
The former pitcher was hired by ESPN in 2010 and is a game analyst and also works on some editions of ESPN’s studio show “Baseball Tonight.”
“Curt’s tweet was completely unacceptable, and in no way represents our company’s perspective,” ESPN said in a written statement. “We made that point very strongly to Curt and have removed him from his current Little League assignment pending further consideration.”
Schilling deleted the tweet after individually replying to his some of his critics and supporters.
In one he wrote, “needed to actually think a bit before acting on that one, or not acting. On me though.”
Not long ago Schilling was getting kudos on social media for standing up to cyberbullies who tweeted crass and rude things about his daughter, who had signed to pitch softball for a Division III college.
Schilling, with the help of Internet sleuths, tracked down the men. Nine received some form of penalty. Some lost their jobs, and some were expelled from college.
In a blog post about the nastiness, Schilling wrote, “These boys have yet to understand one of life’s most important lessons. In the real world you get held accountable for the things you say and if you are not careful that can mean some different things.”
The 2001 Sports Illustrated co-Sportsman of the Year has engaged in other controversial Twitter conversations. In November he debated other users on the subject of evolution. He also has made intriguing statements like telling a Boston radio station that he hasn’t been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame because he is a Republican.
