The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown has cancelled a celebration of the movie Bull Durham because of the anti-war views of stars Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. Hall president Dale Petroskey informed the actors via a letter this week that the celebration, due to take place April 26-27 has been called off:

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… 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.

Un-freakin’-believable. Petroskey, a former White House assistant press secretary under Ronald Reagan, is afraid that two intelligent, outspoken actors are more capable of endangering the United States’ military personnel than President George W. Bush, the commander in chief who sent those forces to war. So afraid that he apparently believes that the constitutional rights of public figures should be curtailed; in a time of war, those rights apparently don’t apply!

As I’ve said before, I have no intentions of turning this space into a political diatribe. But this action is downright cowardly. The Hall of Fame is a private institution. But it’s also a tax-exempt non-profit one, and as an astute reader (posting under Sarandon’s name but admitting that’s not actually his or her identity) points out, such organizations are not allowed to engage in political activity. Petroskey and the Hall are out of bounds, but the irony of them going out of their way to pre-empt Robbins’ and Sarandons’ appearance and call attention to their views is that they’ve given them a far wider audience (in this circle, at least) than they otherwise would have received.

Robbins replied to Petroskey’s letter with the following:

I am sorry that you have chosen to use baseball and your position at the Hall of Fame to make a political statement. 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.

To suggest that my criticism of the President put the troops in danger is absurd. … I wish you had, in your letter, saved me the rhetoric and talked honestly about your ties to the Bush and Reagan administrations.

You invoke patriotism and use words like “freedom” in an attempt to intimidate and bully. In doing so, you dishonor the words “patriotism” and “freedom” and dishonor the men and women who have fought wars to keep this nation a place where one can freely express their opinions without fear of reprisal or punishment.

Amen to that. I’ve attempted to send a letter to the Hall of Shame via its contact page, but submitting the form is apparently producing an error at the moment. I’d like to think it’s because so many baseball fans are outraged at this action, but I suspect it’s just the Hall of Shame conveniently closing its ears to the public until the storm dies down. I’ll keep trying to get through. [Postcript: submitting the form through the site’s contact page via .org instead of .com worked. The above link has been changed to reflect that.]

Thanks to reader Andrew Blackistan for calling this story to my attention.