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Curt Schilling says his outspoken political views are keeping him OUT of the Baseball Hall of Fame ... telling TMZ Sports, "If I had said 'Lynch Trump,' I'd be getting in with about 90% of the vote."

Schilling says he's well aware he's rubbed most of the H.O.F. voters the wrong way with his anti-Obama political views ... and the inflammatory social media posts haven't helped his cause.

FYI, Schilling was a stud for 20 YEARS -- winning 3 World Series titles with an 11-2 postseason record and a 2.23 ERA. Plus, more than 3,000 career strikeouts.

Teresa and Joe Giudice's rap sheet with the feds has nothing to do with their old Jersey Shore crib getting torn down -- it has everything to do with turning a quick profit.

We're told the new homeowners plan to tear down the home and sell the lot ... which they bought last August for $127k.

You'd think the new owners were superstitious about the house, since the previous owners both landed in the big house. But, we're told they actually had no idea who had previously owned the house when they bought it off the bank.

The Giudices bought the home for $347k in 2005. The bank foreclosed on it and put it up for auction last year but there were no bidders. The bank bought it back for $100.

Lyft hires drivers who will get drunk behind the wheel and make dangerous decisions that cause car crashes that are so terrifying they cause heart attacks ... so claims a Lyft passenger in a new lawsuit.

A California woman claims she hopped in a Lyft with terrifying consequences. She says the driver was DUI, made an illegal left and t-boned another car so fiercely the Lyft rolled. She says she suffered injuries to her chest and ribs.

Get this ... the woman happens to be an Uber driver.

The woman's lawyer, Paul N. Philips, tells TMZ ... his client had a "trauma-caused heart attack" and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

A Lyft rep tells us the company has a zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policy and has permanently banished the driver.

It's the first day of 2017 and singer Lexy Panterra is in the gym ... feel guilty yet?

Time to hit the weights, treadmill or whatever ya got lyin' around.

Don McLean says don't let big diamonds fool you ... he's not engaged to a smokin' hot, much younger babe ... hmmmm.

Paris Dylan is NOT his fiancee ... so says Don's rep, who adds the relationship is strictly professional.

The 22-year-old model's been blowing up her page with pics of her and Don together for the holidays, with captions like "Aloha & Merry Christmas from my Donny and I" ... all while wearing a fat rock on her ring finger.

Paris does Don's social media. You'll recall his wife filed for divorce earlier this year.

So bye bye, Paris. No Mrs. American Pie here ... so they say.

Dick Clark Productions is outraged by the claims Mariah Carey's people made to TMZ, and the company is suggesting the singer has opened herself up to a lawsuit.

Dick Clark's people say Mariah's claim the production company sabotaged her New Year's Eve performance is "defamatory," adding it's also "outrageous and frankly absurd."

As we reported, Mariah's people say they repeatedly told production people her earpiece was not functioning but they ignored the warnings and even falsely led the singer to believe everything would work fine when she hit the stage. Suffice it to say ... the performance was a disaster.

Dick Clark Productions says, "In very rare instances there are of course technical errors that can occur with live television, however, our initial investigation has indicated that DCP had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey's New Year's Eve performance."

Our Dick Clark sources blame the problems on Mariah, saying she refused to personally do a sound check and there was ample sound on stage for her to hear the music.

Dick Clark Productions adds, "We want to be clear that we have the utmost respect for Ms. Carey as an artist and acknowledge her tremendous accomplishments in the industry."

Doutzen Kroes had a resolution for 2017 -- play beach soccer in a bikini ... check.

The Victoria's Secret Angel hit up Miami Beach Sunday to kick around a ball with her hubby, Sunnery James, all while showing off her smokin' hot bod ... rear view included.

Mariah Carey believes her New Year's Eve performance -- which turned out to be a trainwreck -- was sabotaged so TV execs could score bigger ratings than usual.

Sources connected with Mariah tell TMZ they repeatedly complained to execs at Dick Clark Productions that her "inner ears" -- aka earpieces -- were NOT working.

Mariah did an interview with Ryan Seacrest an hour before she took the stage in Times Square and she was having trouble. You can hear her say to Ryan, "It's hard for me to hear you."

We're told after the interview Mariah and her team went to the production trailer and complained to Dick Clark execs her inner ears weren't working. Mariah sources say they were told her inner ears would be on a different frequency when she hit the stage and there would be no problem.

Fast forward to 6 minutes before her performance. Mariah was in the holding tent for last minute makeup, and she was alarmed, telling the production team she could barely hear anything. Mariah sources say they were assured the tent muffled the sound, and it would be fine on stage.

At that point someone said her mic pack wasn't working because the battery was dead, so they changed packs.

Mariah was suspicious and got on stage 4 minutes early to test things out, and she couldn't hear anything in her inner ear. She and her team say they complained repeatedly, but nothing was done.

To make matters worse and even more suspicious, Mariah's people say when she got on stage the prompter wasn't working. The prompter has the lyrics when they appear in the song as well as stage cues.

Mariah ripped the inner earpiece out -- out of frustration -- and thought she had a fighting chance just listening to the music, but the crowd was so loud in Times Square she could hear nothing.

Short story -- Mariah's team believe there are too many coincidences and too many warnings ... they say it was sabotage "so they could get Mariah drama." We know Mariah's people fired off an email to an Exec at Dick Clark Productions, saying, "This is sabotage."

We've reached out to Dick Clark Productions ... so far, no word back.

11:36 AM PT -- Dick Clark Production sources tell TMZ ... Mariah's "sabotage" claim is "silly," seeing how she's the one who decided not to do a sound check, and had a stand-in do it instead. They also say there were 8 monitors on stage amplifying sound, so even without an inner ear, Mariah should have been able to hear just fine. They add Mariah changed her story ... initially saying the track was wrong. Our Dick Clark sources insist her camp provided the track list.

So this is interesting ... JLo changed her mind about the whole "stay at home for the holidays" thing and headed off to Vegas to watch Drake perform.

JLo's sources told us a few weeks ago she was cancelling her lucrative appearance in Miami for NYE because she got a new home last year, and was working so much she had no time to enjoy it. What better time, she said, than the holidays where she could relax with family.

So why Vegas, and why Drake? People in their camp say something's going on, but we're still skeptical because they have new tunes together.

To be continued ...

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished first in 2016 by getting married to his longtime girlfriend before the clock struck 12 on NYE.

NASCAR's golden boy tied the knot Saturday night to Amy Reimann, who he got engaged to last June. The ceremony went down at Childress Vineyards in North Carolina, and Dale looks like he couldn't have been happier to ring in 2017 with a pair of wedding bands.

A big chunk of the NASCAR community was there too -- from Chocolate Myers and Danica Patrick to Bubba Wallace -- to wave in their star driver toward the finish line. Congrats!

The Hollywood sign just paid homage to a new California law making recreational marijuana legal.

Someone vandalized the sign either on New Year's Eve or super early New Year's day and it now touts legal pot.

Cops say they're gonna get their guy because there's surveillance video. It looks like one man acting alone changed the most iconic image in Hollywood. We're told he used a tarp to change the shape of the O's.

Fun Fact: Someone pulled the same stunt on January 1, 1976. It took 41 years for dreams to be realized.

Nothing like a little health scare to bring people back together.

Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian appeared to have mended fences and were back together to celebrate the end of 2016.

As you know, she moved out along with the baby, and then Rob started eating like crazy ... triggering his diabetes. He went to the hospital, she followed and now they're re-united.

She's also wearing her wedding ring again.

In with the re-new.

French Montana, Diddy and DJ Khaled rang in the new year with a mixed message ... one of less hate, but more f*** you's.

The 3 hip-hop stars were performing their NYE gig together Saturday night at Tao in Vegas, where French took over the mic to deliver his heartfelt sermon, before jumping into Chris Brown's song "Loyal."

2016 is ending in spectacularly tragic fashion, with Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, George Michael, and on and on. So we gotta ask ...

Don Lemon is out there again ... this time he decided to have someone stick a needle in his ear during CNN's live NYE broadcast.

The CNN anchor was in New Orleans, and just before midnight, some dude with a mask did the dirty work. It's painful to watch.

Mariah Carey was overcome by emotions during her NYE performance in Times Square.

Mariah began singing "Auld Lang Syne" when suddenly the track for "Emotions" started playing. Mariah tried to pivot into her big hit, but she wasn't prepared to sing it ... it seems it wasn't on the playlist.

Although the story's being told that "Emotions" started playing in the middle of "Auld Lang Syne," if you listen closely it seems like the she may have actually finished singing the NYE staple.

BTW ... the track gives a peek in to the actual performance of "Emotions." Mariah sings, but at high pitched moments her voice takes over the track.

Her reps cite technical difficulties, but Mariah addressed the stage fumble herself afterward like the diva she is ... "S*** happens." Well said.