Curt Schilling says in his mind he's already decided to challenge Elizabeth Warren. | AP Photo Curt Schilling planning Senate run against Elizabeth Warren

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling said on Tuesday that he's planning to run against Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts' 2018 Senate race.

The conservative former baseball player, beloved in New England for pitching through a bloody ankle injury in the 2004 playoffs, said that while he still needs to speak to his family, in his mind he's already decided to challenge Warren.


"I've made my decision. I'm going to run," Schilling said on Rhode Island radio station WPRO. "But I haven't talked to Shonda, my wife. And ultimately it's going to come down to how her and I feel this would affect our marriage and our kids."

The former major leaguer has been a lightning rod for controversy since retiring, and he was fired from ESPN this year for posting a meme that was harshly critical of transgendered people.

He's also repeatedly posted anti-Muslim items on Facebook, which first landed him in hot-water with ESPN in 2015, and attacked Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server.

“If I’m going to believe, and I don’t have any reason not to believe, that she gave classified information on hundreds if not thousands of emails on a public server after what happened to Gen. Petraeus, she should be buried under a jail somewhere," Schilling said on a Kansas City radio show earlier this year. "If she's allowed to get to the general election before she's in prison, I'll be stunned and I'll be upset."

Schilling has repeatedly hinted that he would challenge Warren, a beloved figure on the left. But his remarks on Tuesday amounted to his most concrete statement yet on challenging Warren, who defeated former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) in 2012.

Asked by the Boston Globe about a possible challenge by Schilling in September, Warren laughed out loud and said Schilling can "certainly try" to be a serious candidate in the liberal state.

A September poll found Warren leading Schilling, 47-28, in a theoretical race. Former Gov. Bill Weld and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito fared better in that poll, with Warren narrowly edging each of them.

While Massachusetts is overwhelmingly Democratic, Republicans have found success in off-year statewide races. Republican Charlie Baker won the governorship in 2014 and Brown won a special election to the Senate in 2010.