Former Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Curt Schilling did not make the Baseball Hall of Fame again and he doesn’t want his last shot at it next year.

In his second-to-last year of eligibility, Schilling finished 16 votes shy of making it in after 71.1% left him short of the 75% requirement.

The right-hander wrote a letter to the Hall of Fame on Monday prior to Tuesday’s news, asking to be removed from the ballot in his final year of eligibility if he did not make it this year.

Schilling also added that if he had made it in, he wanted to be representing the D-backs.

I’ve chosen Arizona as the team I would have represented if I had been inducted and even though I heard someone there is calling for the D-backs front office to “meet” should the induction happen I’ll stand with that decision as I know Mr. Kendrick to be an honorable and kind man.

The 54-year-old went on to say that his second choice after the D-backs would “most certainly” be the Philadelphia Phillies. He writes that as the case because what Boston Red Sox ownership “did to my family and I in my final year has been forgiven but will never be forgotten.”

Schilling finished his career with 216 wins and a 3.46 ERA. His 3,116 career strikeouts rank 15th in MLB history. The only retired pitcher with a better strikeout-to-walk ratio retired in 1884, and Schilling pitched at least twice as many seasons as any current player ahead of him.

Where he really makes his case is the postseason. In 19 postseason games, Schilling went 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA. He was named MVP of the National League Championship Series with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1993, co-World Series MVP with the D-backs in 2001, and has one of the iconic postseason pitching moments with the “bloody sock” game for the Red Sox in 2004.

Schilling’s on-field accomplishments face little dispute, but he has ostracized himself in retirement by directing hateful remarks toward Muslims, transgender people, journalists and others.

The Associated Press contributed to this story

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