Free Speech, or a Lot of ‘Bull’?

Who would have believed that Dale Petroskey, the dapper president of the Hall of Fame, has a great deal in common with Nuke LaLoosh, the wild and wacky pitcher in “Bull Durham,” director Ron Shelton’s wonderful snapshot of life and love in baseball’s bushes?

LaLoosh, played by Tim Robbins, never knew where his pitches would end up -- until at least he received some valuable mechanical and other tips from that savvy baseball Annie named, of course, Annie Savoy, and played by Susan Sarandon, Robbins’ longtime companion.

Petroskey?

Well, it turns out that his delivery can be as off-target as those of young Nuke.

The former assistant press secretary in the Reagan administration has chosen to politicize the baseball shrine in Cooperstown by citing the antiwar rhetoric of Robbins and Sarandon in canceling a 15th anniversary celebration of “Bull Durham” scheduled for the Hall on April 26-27 and which Robbins, Sarandon and Shelton were expected to attend.

Call it a ridiculous decision at odds with the Hall’s purported mission, which is education.

The lesson Professor Petroskey has taught us is this: Speech isn’t always free and dissent isn’t always allowed.

In a letter to Robbins, Petroskey acknowledged that every American has the right to express his or her opinion, this being a free country, but “public figures, such as you,” have much larger platforms and, thus, “an equally large obligation to speak and act 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 ... “

So, what is Petroskey actually saying?

Is it all right, for example, to dissent as long as that dissent isn’t registered from the type of platform Robbins and Sarandon enjoy?

Are we all required, for example, to follow and express only one course and one voice, or what is meant by the phrase “act and speak responsibly”?

In Iraq, U.S troops are fighting and dying to help install a democratic government that protects free speech.

Would Petroskey, in his concern for “our troops,” put restrictions on that speech, and who exactly is he talking about in his letter when he makes shadowy references throughout to “we”?

By all accounts this was his decision, his letter, a letter far more threatening in the context of Constitutional consequences than anything Robbins and Sarandon have said, a letter that even left baseball people ducking for cover.

In what can only be construed as a Petroskey knock, baseball spokesman Rich Levin said that Commissioner Bud Selig had nothing to do with either the decision or event and “it is not our practice to make political statements.”

Since Petroskey made his, exercising his right of free speech while suppressing those of Robbins and Sarandon, Petroskey has basically gone underground, rejecting interview requests.

The Hall has been flooded with more than 10,000 e-mails on both sides of the issue, according to a Cooperstown official, and Petroskey finally emerged from his bunker to concede that he probably should have first called Robbins and Sarandon to discuss their appearance rather than assuming they would turn it into a political forum (which, of course, Petroskey has now done).

In a phone interview, Robbins said he didn’t buy the attempt at backpedaling, pointing out that the Hall invited current White House press secretary Ari Fleischer to speak there a year ago and that the news release announcing the event included a quote from Petroskey in which he said the Hall would hear Fleischer’s “perspective on life in the White House and the current political scene, which, of course, includes the war on terrorism.”

Said Robbins: “Where’s any mention of baseball in that? How do you correlate allowing Fleischer to speak on politics and terrorism and canceling an event in honor of a baseball movie?

“It’s regrettable that Petroskey used his position of power to push his political agenda and it’s a ridiculous assumption to think we were going to Cooperstown to make a political speech. Would we have answered a direct question with a direct answer? That’s possible. After all, this is America, but I’m a huge baseball fan and we were looking forward to being there again to visit with friends, celebrate a movie we love, and actually spend some time away from any rhetoric on war and politics.”

Robbins added that it’s an equally absurd assumption for people to conclude that he and Sarandon don’t support the troops they are accused of endangering.

“There’s a tendency to oversimplify,” he said. “If you’re against the war, you have to be against the troops. That’s just not true. I mean, it’s crazy to say that Susan and I are putting the troops in harm’s way. We didn’t want them there in the first place.”

A permanent exhibit at the Hall of Fame honors the long relationship between baseball and the presidents. The administration’s position has almost always been that the show should go on -- a grassroots symbol of the American spirit, the nation’s continuity, a diversion during times of trouble and trauma.

“Bull Durham” underscores the symbiotic relationship between baseball and the American persona in borrowing from the poetry of Walt Whitman, but the screen will be dark in Cooperstown.

Managers and players can offer dissent of an umpire’s opinion in the game the Hall commemorates, but in the view of the Hall president it’s not allowed on a larger stage. Even in Cooperstown, McCarthyism doesn’t always refer to the late New York Yankee manager whose plaque hangs there.