"There's no dissent allowed in baseball"

I'm not mad at Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson for being a pigheaded boob in his refusal to admit women as members of the golf club that hosts the Masters Tournament. I'm mad at him for making me have to think about golf.

Dale Petroskey, though, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a longtime Republican Party hack, I'm mad at for being a pigheaded boob.

Petroskey this week canceled a planned celebration of the 15th anniversary of the baseball flick "Bull Durham" because two of its stars, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, have spoken out against the war in Iraq and President Bush. "In a free country such as ours, every American has the right to his or her own opinions, and to express them," Petroskey wrote in a letter to would-be participants quoted by the Associated Press. "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."

Translation: Hey, I believe in free speech as much as the next guy, as long as the person speaking agrees with me.

I think there are two things to think about here - the need of the American public to rally around something sacred, and the social need for public protests against issues that the public disapproves of. In this case, these two issues clash. I've heard so many of my "pacifist" friends say, "Well, now that we're IN the war, we need to support our boys" I think that attitude is crap. If everyone shut up about the war and didn't protest, the politicians could say, "See? People approve of the war." Do you REALLY want that to happen?

Sorry. <g> I HARDLY ever go off like that. But I think that what Petrosky did is silly. Just plain silly. <giggles> That's all.

The opinion of the American public, in this day of omnipresent television and advertising, is swayed heavily by the manipulation of symbols. Karl Rove understands this and masterfully, in his Machiavellian manner, manipulates patriotic and cultural images to sway public thought.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame's cancellation of a long-scheduled "Bull Durham" festival was much more than an isolated impulsive act. It is highly unlikely that it was just an individual action taken by the Republican operative who serves as President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

No, Dale Petroskey, the Marvin Bush friend and former Reagan aide who summarily canceled the "Bull Durham" event, is not going to suddenly reschedule it. He has made that clear. All he has done, in response to the onslaught of negative fan response and hostile press, is say that he should have called Robbins and Sarandon before he turned his blistering pro-Bush propaganda letter to them over to the Associated Press.

Those of us who feel threatened by the encroachment of our freedoms owe it to our Constitution and to America not to let the Republicans steal another symbol of this great land, just as they have looted so many other American treasures for their own selfish purposes. Baseball belongs to the people, not to Bush-Reagan lackeys like Dale Petroskey.

Petroskey most likely did not act without the knowledge of at least some National Baseball Hall of Fame Board members, even though some press reports are saying that the Board is claiming Petroskey's decision was his alone. It's a little hard to believe that Petroskey, being a good Republican "yes" man, would just, without clearing it, write up an incendiary letter to Robbins and Sarandon, a few weeks before an event, release it to the press, and only THEN tell the Board.

That's not how Republicans operate.