April 20, 2003
Hall Backtracks On Robbins, Sarandon
Late on Friday afternoon, Dale Petroskey, president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, issued the following letter. In it, he apologizes for revoking an invitation to Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon to participate in an event centered around the baseball movie, Bull Durham.
Here's the full text of the letter as posted on the Hall's Web site:
We have received thousands of letters, e-mails, and phone calls about the cancellation of the Bull Durham events scheduled for April 26-27. Thank you for sharing your feelings with us.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a very special place - a national treasure - and my responsibility is to protect it. Politics has no place in The Hall of Fame. There was a chance of politics being injected into The Hall during these sensitive times, and I made a decision to not take that chance. But I inadvertently did exactly what I was trying to avoid. With the advantage of hindsight, it is clear I should have handled the matter differently.
I am sorry I didn't pick up the phone to have a discussion with Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon rather than sending them a letter.
We are so lucky to have Baseball - a game that unites us as Americans. The events of the past week show us all that The Game burns brighter than ever and continues to stir passions in many people.
Our wish is that every American will visit Cooperstown and join us in celebrating Baseball, our national pastime and the greatest game of all.
Unfortunately, there are no plans to revive the event, or to send another invitation to Robbins and Sarandon to visit the Hall -- something that simple courtesy demands. Further, this apology, like the cancellation of the invitation, wasn't delivered by Petroskey personally. Instead, the letter the Hall posted on its Web site was simply faxed to Robbins and Sarandon beforehand.
All in all, not a moment of glory for the Hall of Fame. All in all, not a great moment for respect and civility in public life either.
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» Petroskey apologizes, sort of from Off the Kuff
While I was out of touch on the Left Coast, Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey issued a non-apology apology [Read More]
Tracked on April 23, 2003 05:14 PM
It's good to see Petroskey at least saying the right things now, although I agree that it would be better to try to revive the event. But maybe it was attempted behind the scenes, and couldn't be rescheduled.
"Politics has no place in the Hall of Fame." Hmm. Does that mean that Petroskey now regrets hosting a talk by noted star of the diamond Ari Fleischer last year? Maybe at least there won't be any more such foolishness (and yes, I would have made the same criticism had the Hall hosted a talk by Mike McCurry during the Clinton years).
Posted by:
at April 21, 2003 11:42 AM
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