ESPN fires former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling as analyst

Associated Press

Curt Schilling helped the Boston Red Sox end an 86-year championship drought and then immediately started squandering the goodwill he had earned.

Even before the celebratory champagne could go flat, Schilling irritated Democrats in presidential candidate John Kerry's home state – many of them Red Sox fans – by blurting out on national TV, "Vote Bush." He toyed with public office himself in 2009 after U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy died, a plan that was complicated because, as an unenrolled voter, Schilling would have had to run as an independent.

That was the essence of the pitcher known in Boston as "The Big Schill": Outspoken, controversial, supremely confident in his opinions in the moment only to realize soon enough that he hadn't quite thought things through.

On Wednesday, Schilling was fired from his job as an ESPN baseball analyst after comments on Facebook critical of transgender rights.

The post included an image of a man wearing a long blond wig and revealing women's clothing and the phrase, "Let him in! To the restroom with your daughter or else you're a narrow minded, judgmental, unloving, racist bigot who needs to die!!!"

In response to recent laws in several states that restrict bathroom access for transgender people, Schilling added: "A man is a man no matter what they call themselves," and, "Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic."

The network, which suspended Schilling from the Little League World Series last year over a tweet in which he compared Muslim extremists to Nazi-era Germans, said Wednesday night that he had been fired.

"ESPN is an inclusive company," the network said in a statement. "Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated."