Curt Schilling’s approval rating is surprisingly low

Curt Schilling’s first season in Boston was 2004, and he went 21-6 with a 3.29 ERA in the regular season and 3-1 with a 3.57 ERA (and one bloody sock) in the playoffs as the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. Three seasons later a 40-year-old Schilling went 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA in the playoffs as the Red Sox won another title. Normally that type of performance from a Hall of Fame-caliber player in a baseball-obsessed, championship-starved place earns someone key-to-the-city status for life. But apparently politics outweigh baseball, even in Boston. Schilling, who’s a Republican, has made noise recently about possibly running for public office at some point, so a new poll in Democrat-heavy Massachusetts asked, “Is your opinion of Curt Schilling generally favorable or generally unfavorable?” As Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com notes, 39 percent of respondents answered “unfavorable” and another 12 percent had never even heard of Schilling. Meanwhile, just 29 percent replied “favorable.” Now don’t get me wrong, people caring about something more than fame when it comes to choosing politicians is a very positive thing. However, as someone who lives in a state where Jesse Ventura was elected governor more or less for being famous 20 years earlier in a fake sport the Schilling data shocks me.