"Isn't one of the greatest things about going to the ballpark that you can sit next to someone you don't agree about anything with and cheer for the same thing?"

My sentiments exactly, Mr. Robbins. But, apparently the bonehead in charge of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Dale Petroskey, doesn't see it that way. Petroskey canceled a planned 15th anniversary celebration of Bull Durham, because in his opinion comments by Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon "could put our troops in more danger."

This is completely into the deep end of the whacko pool (or in something deep at any rate). I understand that Robbins and Sarandon might have said things that Petroskey doesn't agree with. And I understand that, technically, the Hall is a private institution (though it will receive $750,000 in taxpayer money in 2003). That just means that they have a right to exclude whomever they choose. It doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.

Shame on the HoF for politicizing the celebration of a great movie about the greatest of sports. So what that its stars are political off camera? Do we boycott old John Wayne and Ronald Reagan movies now?

Shame on Mr. Petroskey for dragging the name of baseball - a game that has represented the spirit of America for over a century - through the mud. Hasn't the current administration of Major League Baseball done enough to tarnish baseball's image on its own?

Shame on us all for letting our fears create a near total lack of respect for free speech these days. I don't need to agree with Robbins, Sarandon, Michael Moore (or Charlton Heston, for that matter) to find this "if you don't agree with me, you shouldn't be allowed to speak" attitude disgustingly un-American. Now, it's being extended to "if there's a possibility that you might disagree with me, you should shut the hell up."

Enough is enough. If you don't like what someone has to say, then engage them in a civilized discussion. You might learn something. Or they might. Either way, you'll both be exercising one of the basic liberties to which every human has a right - and for which our troops are fighting and dying across the globe.