While I was out of touch on the Left Coast, Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey issued a non-apology apology to Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon for his cowardly and un-American retraction of an invitation to Cooperstown to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the movie Bull Durham. Hesiod and Eric McErlain, whom I doubt agree on much else, have both rightfully called Petroskey's "apology", which admitted no real wrongdoing and was faxed to Robbins and Sarandon instead of delivered personally, a sham. It's clear by now that Petroskey doesn't care at all about any of this and will simply ignore anyone who disagrees with him. What a complete and utter disgrace.

Bear in mind that Petroskey has had no qualms about inviting Republicans to speak at the Hall, such as former Reagan staffer Ken Duberstein, who spoke about the upcoming Presidential election in 2000 (how that relates to baseball eludes me, I must confess), and chief Bush flack Ari Fleischer, who spoke last January about the War on Terror (again, not my idea of a baseball-related topic). Really, at this point the mystery is how Robbins and Sarandon ever got invited to speak in the first place. (Thanks to Peter Jung for the links.)

On an end note, I present the following without comment, as I didn't see the show in question and couldn't find a mainstream press story confirming it. If anyone who saw this episode of The Today Show could say whether it's an accurate account of what happened, I'd appreciate it.