2003-04-25 11:18 a.m.
Who Would Jesus Pitch To?
First there was that nonsense about Dale Petroskey, formerly an assistant press secretary to Reagan and now the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, cancelling the hall's Bull Durham 15th anniversary because he thought Robbins' views on the war in Iraq were "irresponsible."
Now baseball, or at least an old, far-right-wing segment of it, is going "pro-life" as part of American Life League's "Batting 1000" campaign. American Life League is not just anti-abortion, but anti-abortion even when the pregnancy resulted from rape or if the woman's life is in danger. They want "abortifacient" birth control such as the Pill and Depo-Provera banned outright, and "den[y] the moral acceptability" of any form of birth control. They're against euthanasia but don't mention the death penalty. And they're against any form of sex education that actually gives information about sex. There isn't actually anything in their position statement denying prenatal care to fallen women, but it's got to be on their site somewhere.
But back to baseball. Battin' 1000 is a sort of rotisserie league of fundraising, where regional "teams" of current and (mostly) former baseball players and managers compete to see who can raise the most money for the "Campus for Life," a pro-life training center ALL hopes to build in Virginia. Backers include such charmers as Jerry Colangelo, the obnoxious, big-spending owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks; Lou Piniella, hotheaded former Mariners manager who's now managing for perpetual cellar-dwellers Tampa Bay; Tommy Lasorda, former Dodgers manager; and Chad Curtis, a former outfielder with a reputation for witnessing to Jewish reporters.
If you read through the list, there's bound to be at least one name on there whose presence disappoints you (or pleases you, if you support this). Mine's Dave Dravecky, the former Giants pitcher who had everyone in the Bay Area pulling for him when he got cancer, and whose career ended because of a pitch that snapped his arm mid-game.
Players, especially former players, are welcome to support whatever causes they want, though I don't particularly want to see baseball politicized in either direction. What bothers me the most is that this organization is explicitly trying to associate baseball's image with a "culture of life." And it disappoints me deeply that so many people associated with baseball were willing to go along with it.