Jason Kander’s Twitter takedown of Curt Schilling was a grand slam

Former Democratic Senate candidate Jason Kander and former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling engaged in a Twitter smackdown over the weekend.

The cyber fisticuffs started after Kander appeared on Friday’s episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” where he went head to head with conservative commentator Tomi Lahren over Benghazi.

Kander, former Missouri secretary of state, told Lahren that a lot of people used the people who died as “political chess pieces.” He challenged her to name the four men killed in Benghazi, saying, “You don’t know.”

But she did, and named all of them.

They also talked about the recent U.S. raid in Yemen that left Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens dead — and what the reaction would have been if that had happened under a Hillary Clinton presidency.

A Twitter user tweeted at Kander to say that he enjoyed the show. “Thanks,” Kander tweeted back.

Then Schilling — who is thinking about running for U.S. Senate next year against Elizabeth Warren — chimed in, wishing Kander bodily harm.

Kander fired back, conjuring the many controversies that have dogged the former Boston Red Sox star in recent years and that, some would say, are hurting his shot at entering baseball’s Hall of Fame.

When the 2017 class was announced last month, Schilling’s name wasn’t on it, and he received a smaller percentage of votes than he did last year.

ESPN fired Schilling last year as a baseball analyst after he shared a post on his Facebook page that appeared to insult transgender people.

That was after the network barred Schilling in August 2015 from covering the Little League World Series after he tweeted an image comparing Muslims to Nazis.

All of which Kander apparently knows very well.

Here’s the pitch:

The crowd roared.

After Kander fired back, Schilling took himself out of the game.

“You know what?” he later tweeted at Kander. “I think what you did was a (bleep) move to @TomiLahren but my response was a bigger (bleep) move. I apologize.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2017 at 9:37 AM with the headline "Jason Kander’s Twitter takedown of Curt Schilling was a grand slam."