By Alexa D'Amato

  Today’s athletes are the first generation who have access to the world of social media in the palm of their hands. What they post is seen by a large audience, we should hold them accountable.

  Every Red Sox fan knows the story behind the “Bloody Sock Game” in the 2004 American League Championship Series. Starting pitcher Curt Schilling pitched seven innings, and gave up one earned run and no walks during Game 6: a do or die game for Boston against the New York Yankees.

  That game had some of the highest stakes of any sports game. Boston hoped to beat the odds and do something that had never been done before: come back from being down 3 games to 0 to win the series.

  Schilling carried the team to secure the victory, despite a bleeding ankle from a torn tendon sheath. His performance was one of the most important and iconic in Red Sox history. He had the postseason heroics to become immortalized in Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

  However, it was a good thing he was not voted into Cooperstown.

  Schilling is known for his political, and oftentimes offensive, Twitter rants. His most notable ones were when he disregarded the identity of transgender individuals and continuously posted offensive things towards Muslims, even comparing them to Nazis. 

  After North Carolina passed a law mandating that transgender people must use the bathroom for the gender they were assigned at birth in 2016, Schilling tweeted an offensive picture towards the transgender community. The post featured a bigoted meme displays a white man in a wig and torn women’s clothing with bold words in all capitals saying “LET HIM IN! TO THE RESTROOM WITH YOUR DAUGHTER OR ELSE YOU’RE A NARROW MINDED, JUDGEMENTAL, UNLOVING, RACIST BIGOT WHO NEEDS TO DIE!!!”

  Hall of Fame candidates are judged “based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the team(s) on which the player played.” This displays none of these qualities. 

  Major League Baseball needs some changes, and they can start by denying players Hall of Fame nominations based on their acceptance of other people. The organization has acknowledged their shortcomings in acceptance of minorities and people who aren’t men.

  They need to change, and fast. Baseball, and major league sports as a whole, have been long overdue to progress into the 21st century. The first female General Manager in major North American sports was only hired in March, when there were still less qualified men climbing the ranks at a much faster rate.

  Transgender people have suffered through laws declaring what bathrooms they can and cannot use and people harassing them online and in public because of their identity, the least Major League Baseball can do to support them is to not let openly transphobic people into the Hall of Fame when one of the categories players are judged on is their character.

  While there must have been other players in the past who would be considered transphobic, they didn’t have the same access to tell the whole world what they were feeling.

  Social media posts can be a way to judge someone’s character: if a player is constantly spreading misinformation or spewing hate, it’s logical to think they probably aren’t a great person away from the screen.

  Posts on social media are an easy way to get a glimpse at someone’s character. So, what an athlete posts, either during or after their playing careers, should be taken into consideration when voting on their Hall of Fame candidacy–a place where they are forever immortalized.