BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall

Subject: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Peter T.
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 09:32 AM

Now here's something everyone can enjoy fighting about. The head of the Baseball Hall of Fame has cancelled the 15th anniversary celebrations of Bull Durham because of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon's politics!!!! Robbins' reply is a classic, beginning with "I didn't know baseball was a Republican spport" to "I believe in democracy, freedom, and the 69 Mets, all improbable glorious miracles."Way to go, Tim: counter stupidity with humour. Where do they get these Hootie types? (answer: country clubs and boardrooms across the continent)

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 10:17 AM

Yep....and Susan Sarandon was banned from speaking at the United Way event in Tampa.

I read that Kevin Costner, the other star of "Bull Durham" and a Republican, stood up for Robbins and Sarandon saying that their protest is exactly what the democracy is all about. Bravo Costner! This is just horseshit. Both of them have expressed their support of the troops, but are simply in disagreement with this decision on the war. I can't and never will buy that a mind can't hold both thoughts with equal sincerity, although for some it seems to a "fer us or agin us" thing.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Amos
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 10:39 AM

Shades of Pinkos and Black Lists!! What reactionary crap weill they dream up next!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 11:37 AM

Sorry, my friends in crotch-clutching, but I gots ta disagree with you. I actually wish Robbins had come out with something CONSISTENTLY funny, rather than his complete statement which was an odd kind of mixture.

What I heard was "Nyah nyah, who cares, you assholes, and by the way, you're all a part of the great Republican conspiracy, and.......".

I do NOT want baseball to be progressive. I love the game too much. I want it to continue to be a home for Neanderthal thinking, and wooden bats. I WANT people to argue for the NEXT twenty years about whether Pete Rose's crimes should continue to keep him out of the hall.

I want baseball to fight progress with every fibre (and chewed sunflower seed) it possesses (ssssp?)

I really want my Baseball intellectuals to be like Jim Bouton, or Bill Lee, rather than George Plimpton.

Right now we have a young man in Toronto playing third base, named Eric Hinske. He looks like a young Mickey Mantle (and even plays a bit like him) and I'd be terribly disappointed if he blew that image by knowing that a Kurd isn't found in milk, or questioning his Government's killing policies.

Nope, if I want progressive politics in Sport, I'll watch, um......um...

Have a nice day.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 11:44 AM

NASCAR racing perhaps?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: beadie
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 12:19 PM

Unfortunately, when it comes to baseball, teh "hootie" typesa are all around, even in places where you would hope that more rational minds prevail. Witness this excerpt from the US Suupreme Court decision in Flood vs Kuhn (the reserve clause case) authored by the late (and lamented) Justice Harry Blackmun.

Flood v. Kuhn
92 S.Ct. 2099
Decided June 19, 1972.
Decision of the Court delivered by Mr. Justice Blackmun
[Excerpted] . . .
                   The Game
"It is a century and a quarter since the New York Nine defeated the Knickerbockers 23 to 1 on Hoboken's Elysian Fields June 19, 1846, with Alexander Jay Cartwright as the instigator and the umpire. The teams were amateur, but the contest marked a significant date in baseball's beginnings. That early game led ultimately to the development of professional baseball and its tightly organized structure.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings came into existence in 1869 upon an outpouring of local pride. With only one Cincinnatian on the payroll, this professional team traveled over 11,000 miles that summer, winning 56 games and tying one. Shortly thereafter, on St. Patrick's Day in 1871, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was founded and the professional league was born.
The ensuing colorful days are well known. The ardent follower and the student of baseball know of General Abner Doubleday; the formation of the National League in 1876; Chicago's supremacy in the first year's competition under the leadership of Al Spalding and with Cap Anson at third base; the formation of the American Association and then of the Union Association in the 1880's; the introduction of Sunday baseball; interleague warfare with cut-rate admission prices and player raiding; the development of the reserve 'clause'; the emergence in 1885 of the Brotherhood of Professional Ball Players, and in 1890 of the Players League; the appearance of the American League, or 'junior circuit,' in 1901, rising from the minor Western Association; the first World Series in 1903, disruption in 1904, and the Series' resumption in 1905; the short-lived Federal League on the majors' scene during World War I years; the troublesome and discouraging episode of the 1919 Series; the home run ball; the shifting of franchises; the expansion of the leagues; the installation in 1965 of the major league draft of potential new players; and the formation of the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1966.

Then there are the many names, celebrated for one reason or another, that have sparked the diamond and its environs and that have provided tinder for recaptured thrills, for reminiscence and comparisons, and for conversation and anticipation in-season and off-season: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker, Walter Johnson, Henry Chadwick, Eddie Collins, Lou Gehrig, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Harry Hooper, Goose Goslin, Jackie Robinson, Honus Wagner, Joe McCarthy, John McGraw, Deacon Phillippe, Rube Marquard, Christy Mathewson, Tommy Leach, Big Ed Delahanty, Davy Jones, Germany Schaefer, King Kelly, Big Dan Brouthers, Wahoo Sam Crawford, Wee Willie Keeler, Big Ed Walsh, Jimmy Austin, Fred Snodgrass, Satchel Paige, Hugh Jennings, Fred Merkle, Iron Man McGinnity, Three-Finger Brown, Harry and Stan Coveleski, Connie Mack, Al Bridwell, Red Ruffing, Amos Rusie, Cy Young, Smokey Joe Wood, Chief Meyers, Chief Bender, Bill Klem, Hans Lobert, Johnny Evers, Joe Tinker, Roy Campanella, Miller Huggins, Rube Bressler, Dazzy Vance, Edd Roush, Bill Wambsganss, Clark Griffith, Branch Rickey, Frank Chance, Cap Anson, Nap Lajoie, Sad Sam Jones, Bob O'Farrell, Lefty O'Doul, Bobby Veach, Willie Kamm, Heinie Groh, Lloyd and Paul Waner, Stuffy McInnis, Charles Comiskey, Roger Bresnahan, Bill Dickey, Zack Wheat, George Sisler, Charlie Gehringer, Eppa Rixey, Harry Heilmann, Fred Clarke, Dizzy Dean, Hank Greenberg, Pie Traynor, Rube Waddell, Bill Terry, Carl Hubbell, Old Hoss Radbourne, Moe Berg, Rabbit Maranville, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove. The list seems endless."

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Greg F.
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 01:28 PM

What a bunch of bullshit. This isn't about baseball. Old Dale was assistant press secretary for Ronald Reagan & is a frequent visitor to the BuShite White House- that can't have anything to do with it, can it?

Well, Gang, write/call/fax this jackass & tell him what you think:

Dale Petroskey, President
National Baseball Hall of Fame
25 Main Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326
888-425-5633
FAX [phone]

Public Relations Department
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
25 Main Street / P.O. Box 590
Cooperstown, NY 13326
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 02:20 PM

I agree Greg......Here's a link to the article. Petroskey is a horse's ass. I know because I'm one myself!

BTW, I love this line by Bud Selig, especially after the Toronto mess: "A spokesman for Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said professional baseball had nothing to do with the Hall of Fame event and did not make "political statements."

Robbins Banned

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Peter T.
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 02:49 PM

No, no, Rick, you are confusing three different groups -- the people in the bleachers, the players, and the owners. The players don't know anything except that baseball has been bery good to them, that is fine. The people in the bleachers need to remain working class (well, fake working class). The fact that the working class at the moment is deluded by late onset Reaganism does not mean it will ever be thus. That the bosses will remain robber barons of course comes with the territory. You obviously missed your Socialism 101 classes.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 03:08 PM

Rick, I think that although PT has a point, NASCAR racing is the way to go for you. It's much like baseball but even moreso! I mean the governing body runs the show and their decisions are often capricious and totally arbitrary, just like the haydays of the commisioner's office, ala Landis and Frick. There are great drivers who never make it big because of their team and never playing on a good one. The big teams win more because races are won by cubic dollars and not cubic inches. Lots of similarities!

And better yet!!! Just tune in to the race at Martinsville this weekend. Probably comes on at 12:30 but the racing won't start til about 1:15 because it takes that long for the preliminary bullshit....No, not the introductions of drivers, the real stuff, like a long prayer for our troops and the drivers, a patriotic song from some country star, a presentation of the flag circling the track on the back of a semi and then coming back to the military honor guard, comments from the military sponsors (each service branch is sponsoring a car this year), perhaps a grandstand display of the flag followed by a flyover of jets from a local base, and then the National Anthem suitably fucked up beyond recognition by yet another country star or sung with gusto by some army corporal who lost his nuts in a friendly fire accident. By the time all of this is over you'll have forgotten what it is you're watching! Reality will be returned as the cars come down to take the green flag and one of the biggest hilljack drivers of all time (now a commentator---sound familiar?) yells, "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity!!!!" It ain't exactly like Mel saying "How about that?" but it has a certain redneck charm.

You really oughta' switch..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Peter T.
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 04:36 PM

Are The Dixie Chicks doing the anthem, CP? I would pay some to see that. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: JenEllen
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 04:38 PM

Thread creep for clarification, but just what the hell is a "Hootie-type"? Specific to boardrooms, country clubs, baseball, or perhaps an evolved creature of the formerly NASCAR "Showusyer Hooties-types"? Etymology, please?
~JE

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: beadie
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 04:41 PM

. . . As in Hootie Johnson (unfortunate mixing of a metaphor), the President of the Augusta National Golf Club; recently famed for his "over my dead body" attitude regarding allowing women to become members.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: JenEllen
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 04:43 PM

...and the clouds part, the Angels sing (they can't hit), and all is right with the world....
(thanks beadie)

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: jeffp
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 04:43 PM

JenEllen:

"Hootie-type" refers to Hootie Johnson, President of Augusta National Golf Club, who has been demonized by Martha Burk, who is trying, without success to make Augusta National open its membership to women.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: JenEllen
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 04:50 PM

Thanks, jeffp. Golf, sheesh, it figures. I'd heard of the Augusta National uproar, but frankly, if the course doesn't have a windmill or a gigantic clown-face, I'm not interested.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Peter T.
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 05:04 PM

As to the clown-face.....yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: JenEllen
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 05:50 PM

Well, if they've already tried sticking their hand down his throat while their partner takes a putter to that sweet spot behind his ear, then I'm outta suggestions.
~JE

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Blackcatter
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 06:19 PM

Spaw - you're a fan of Nascar too!

This year I've been turning the races on well after the starting point to avoid the fascist propaganda.

As of M.L.B., remember they're still holding onto the falacy that Doubleday invented the game. Kind of like the Pope excommunicating Galileo.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: John Hindsill
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 08:43 PM

Notwithstanding that it sounds good, 'blacklisting' does not apply here. There is no concerted, industry wide effort to deny Tim Robbins either his livelihood, nor even the right to speak his mind. One organization chose not to let him appear at their party because they don't like what he says about current events. They both have the right to be stupid! Robbins can speak wherever he can find a forum, while those who object to those comments need not provide the forum.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Mudlark
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 09:09 PM

Rick...forget NASCAR racing...as boring as baseball, all that circling the track/bases. Go for rodeoing instead. Now there is a died in the wool, definitely non-progressive, old fashioned sport, hide bound and patriotic, and intellectuals are hard to find on the back of a wild bull. And it's a lot more exciting than baseball.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: beadie
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 09:38 PM

Mudlark:
Right on! I'd like to someone just try to make a first-rate bronc "stand on it and turn left."

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 11:15 PM

Actually Jen Ellen, the boys are gettin' things mixed up a bit.

They mean "Hooters" Type guys. Not at all yer basic "Hootie" type. These are (surprisingly) NOT men who hang out at Clubs waitressed by young girls with immense plastic breasts, but actually, elderly men with pendulous breasts of their own.

For many years there was no place for these men to go and admire each other, until several of them bought a small building right next door to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown New York.

They've decorated it in red velvet, and all around the walls are pictures of various Hell's Angels members with pierced nipples. On any given night there might be fifteen to twenty "Hooters" guys there, prancing around in skimpy outfits...some even wearing fetching pasties

typicalmember

You have to scroll down quite a bit to really appreciate this guy, but it's worth it! Yes, you're right....it IS Darryl Strawberry, after some cosmetic surgery.

Heck, someday even Catspaw may be a "Hooters" type of guy!

Glad to have been of help.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Amos
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 11:45 PM

Geeze, Rick:

Why do I hear a loud, deep sucking sound?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: DougR
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 12:57 AM

Thanks Greggie for suppling that email address. I did as you suggested. I wrote them and told them what I think about it.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 01:42 AM

Has anyone else noticed that the same people who most vocally support fighting wars to, supposedly, give other people the freedoms that American citizens enjoy are also the ones most opposed to letting Americans exercise those freedoms? We just fought a war so that Iraqis can have freedom of speech, but Americans who exercise their freedom of speech to criticize Mr. Bush's administration are looked on as traitors.

With formerly reasonable people sporting bumper stickers that say "If 90% of you are for military strikes, the other 10% should be tried for treason." we've got a lot to worry about. It's a pretty short walk to "If 90% of you are Christians...." or "If 90% of you are white....".

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 10:25 AM

The most disgusting threesome I have seen recently were three petroleum association guys in this morning's paper (also in the New York Times) beaming over the passage of a U.S. House of Representatives "more wasted energy" bill. Truly fossil Hooties -- they would be part of Rick's pendulous brigade (actually, I dare not think of them naked and/or serving food, it being just after breakfast).

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 11:08 AM

Fossil Hootie? LMAO................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: JenEllen
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 11:20 AM

I start to think, optimistically (why do I do that?), that Wayne Cochran is the worst of it, then I read on......

Now, if he can get his tassles to swing both the left and the right, does that make him the ideal switch hitter, a primo big-oil lobbyist, or just another reason why baseball and politics shouldn't mix?

~giggling Jen
Off to find the lyrics to "There's a Redneck in the Soul Band"

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 11:32 AM

Dearest Jen, I'm truly sorry you had to see my blue clicky, but I figure that by your age (you're about 30, right?) you should have had enough of men anyway.

The "Hooter Guy" featured big time in the "Lord Buckley" biography I'm reading. I agree though, Wayne Cochran is also pretty amazing.

Rick (still an A cup)

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: JenEllen
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 11:44 AM

Yup, on the cemetary side of 30, and if I hadn't had enough of men before, I now have seen the light (glinting off a sequined pasty...eeewwwwwww...).

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 11:54 AM

Are we speaking of Tubby or Wayne here? yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: JenEllen
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 11:57 AM

After they reach a certain size, Peter, you can name them anything you want....

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Greg F.
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 12:03 PM

Well Douggie,

Petroskey can admit he screwed up- even if you can't.

April 12, 2003 NY TIMES
Baseball Hall of Fame President Acknowledges Mistake

>STORY HERE

Several New York State papers (no, not 'liberal' ones) are also calling for him to be fired; seems he didn't bother to consult the Board of Directors, either.
For example from the capital

HERE
and
HERE

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 12:11 PM

Well shit............Ya know Rick, after re-reading your post where you said, "Heck, someday even Catspaw may be a "Hooters" type of guy! and then looking at this picture, I realized that I may already be a Hooters-Type Guy..............Anybody got a gun.........maybe some cyanide? How about a collection of Little Hawk's postings?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 12:21 PM

I don't know about this "grabbing the bull by the horns" metaphor. To quote JenEllen, ewwwwhhhh.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: JenEllen
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 02:00 PM

And to quote the Hooters waitresses at closing time: "I'm sorry I ever brought it up."

Subject: RE: BS: Tim Robbins vs. Baseball Hall
From: beadie
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 09:16 PM

Re: Hooters.

Been there (sort of a dump, actually, in a local strip mall [imagine that])

Seen them (perhaps bigger than many, but obviously a lot of silicone)

Eaten that (the food ain't all that great, and certainly not worth the price, even with the "extra added attractions")