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4.10.2003
Petroskey cancels Bull Durham festivities This is a day or two old, but I'm commenting on it anyway. I really don't like Tim Robbins or Susan Sarandon, but this is ridiculous. For those of you who aren't aware of the story and don't feel like using the above link, I'll quickly summarize what's going on: The Hall of Fame had scheduled a ceremony of some kind to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of the release of Bull Durham, a film which stars Kevin Costner and, among others, Robbins and Sarandon, who are both liberal activists and have unsurprisingly come out strongly against the action being taken by the US in Iraq. Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey has made the decision that as a result of their stance, these festivities needed to be cancelled. Quite frankly, if this was the course of action Petroskey wanted to take, I don't understand why it took this long. Robbins (a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in New York, as I am) and girlfriend Sarandon are unabashed liberals and are widely known as such. So why schedule the event in the first place if the problem is with their politics? Could Petroskey not guess that they'd come out and make public statements about the war and what those statements would be? According to the linked article, Robbins responded in a letter, "I know there are many baseball fans that disagree with you, and even more that will react with disgust to realize baseball is being politicized." And that's the real issue. Robbins and Sarandon shouldn't be evaluated here, and it's not Petroskey's place to make a judgment on their politics. If anything, Petroskey (who apparently has worked for Republican politicians in the past and obviously supports the war effort) should be happy that things are seemingly going so well in the Middle East currently, and not worry about something that is completely unrelated. There's just no need to have personal political views cross over into what is strictly a baseball-related matter. I'm really surprised that the day has come when I can agree with something Tim Robbins says, but he's absolutely right about this. - |