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Curt Schilling removed from ESPN’s Little League coverage after controversial tweet

ESPN analyst and former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling watches as the Boston Red Sox work out at baseball spring training in February.

ESPN analyst and former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling watches as the Boston Red Sox work out at baseball spring training in February.

(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)
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Former MLB pitching great Curt Schilling is never shy about sharing his opinions.

Here’s one he should have kept to himself.

On Tuesday morning, the current ESPN baseball analyst tweeted a meme that said: “It’s said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?”

Schilling did not create the meme, which featured the likeness of Hitler. But he did add his own commentary to accompany his tweet: “The math is staggering when you get to the true #s.”

The tweet was up for only 10 minutes before being deleted. Schilling had the meme on his Facebook page for about an hour after that, but it has since been deleted, as well.

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Later on Tuesday, ESPN removed Schilling from its coverage of the Little League World Series.

“Curt’s tweet was completely unacceptable, and in no way represents our company’s perspective,” the network said in a statement. “We made that point very strongly to Curt and have removed him from his current Little League assignment pending further consideration.”

Schilling also addressed the controversy to individuals on Twitter.

“I understand and accept my suspension,” he wrote to one user. “100% my fault. Bad choices have bad consequences and this was a bad decision in every way on my part.”

He wrote to another: “My apologies. That didn’t come across in any way as intended or interpreted.”

Schilling is no stranger to social media. He loves sharing his thoughts, which are sometimes controversial and usually on the conservative side, and engaging with those who disagree with him.

Earlier this year, he put his tech savvy to fine use when he took on Internet trolls who were posting despicable comments about his daughter.

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It’s tough to get a guy like him to back down. Smart move to do so this time.

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