"THERE'S NO LIBERALISM IN BASEBALL!"



Obviously, this is too much for Major League Baseball to handle.

Especially when the Hall of Fame president is a Reaganite (and kudos to AP for mentioning that in the very first paragraph of their story):

NEW YORK - The Hall of Fame president, a former official in the Reagan administration, canceled a 15th anniversary celebration of "Bull Durham" because of anti-war criticism by co-stars Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon.

The most hilarious part of this whole thing is certainly the letter the president, Dale Petroskey, sent to the participants:

"In a free country such as ours, every American has the right to his or her own opinions, and to express them. Public figures, such as you, have platforms much larger than the average American's, which provides you an extraordinary opportunity to have your views heard — and an equally large obligation to act and speak responsibly," Petroskey wrote.

"We believe your very public criticism of President Bush at this important — and sensitive — time in our nation's history helps undermine the U.S. position, which ultimately could put our troops in even more danger. As an institution, we stand behind our President and our troops in this conflict."

Wow. The obvious first question, of course would be whether Petroskey acted to bar Trent Lott, Dick Armey, Tom DeLay, etc, from visiting the Hall of Fame in 1999 during the Kosovo campaign.

But more importantly, this is the attempted politicization of a sport that's supposed to belong to everybody, plain and simple. There are people with whom I have little or nothing in common with politically, yet we can find common ground in our shared enthusiasm for the Giants, 49ers, etc. So if you're a conservative and you're gloating about this -- you know who you are -- then by all means, get a $#*@ing life. You, like our friend Mr Petroskey, are acting counter to the ideals of sports, and to those of the United States Constitution. And my guess is that the vast majority of conservative males who have seen Bull Durham really like it! (a poll of espn.com readers last year voted Bull Durham the best sports movie of all time)

Furthermore, it can be argued -- by myself in this instance -- that the concept of competitive sports is, by nature, a liberal one. It is the competition of war, but without death and destruction. It does not have an official religion, its professional participants are thoroughly active in local communities, for the disadvantaged and otherwise.

Finally, next year is 2004, which is the 20th anniversary of "The Natural". Robert Redford ain't exactly the, um, most conservative guy around, so is that ceremony going to go forward or what?