The subject of sports entwinement with political/social issues is not new and it’s not going away.

The tiff between Martha Burk of NCWO and Augusta National Golf Club over the non-admission of women into its ranks surrounded the recently completed Masters Golf Tournament. The issue was the exclusion of women from any organization, public or private, based on gender alone.

Major League Baseball and the NFL have policies to correct past and present hiring discrimination against memories for coaching and execrative positions. MLB dealt with the segregation of blacks to the Negro Leagues.

The latest flap comes from the baseball Hall of Fame which recently canceled a 15th anniversary celebration of the movie Bull Durham because the movie’s two stars, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, spoke against U.S. actions related to the Iraq war.

Dale Petroskey, president of the Hall and a former assistant press secretary for President Reagan, said the “criticism of President Bush … helps undermine the U.S. position, which could put our troops in even more danger.”

Petroskey’s actions led highly respected sports author Roger Kahn to cancel his August speaking appearance at the Hall. Kahn said of Petroskey’s act, “You are choking freedom of dissent.”

When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, the verbal and written abuse he took is now a piece of history. A part of that abuse was directed at the very idea baseball should be involved in dealing with social issues, in that case, racial discrimination. Hey, this is baseball.

Petroskey said, “We didn’t want people to espouse their views in a very public place, one way or the other. The Hall isn’t the place for that.” Oh? Of course, expressing his view by canceling the celebration was OK.

The same “let’s not deal with it here” arguments have been heard in virtually every context in which social injustices have been challenged. Why should the educational system have to deal with state policies that segregate schools?

Why should privately owned lunch counters have to deal with white-only public facilities laws? Why should the King’s appointed governor of Massachusetts have to deal with tea parties protesting taxes imposed by a parliament in London?

Why? Because that’s where life gets lived out. Sports are no different. To believe that somehow life’s injustices have their own little niche where they go to await solving is ignorant bliss of the worst dimension. The very question of what are the injustices has to be played out somewhere. Since we believe that is best decided by the general populace, then the venues of the populace is where that must occur.

Sports are one of those venues. The Petroskey’s of the world would like to say, “Just leave us alone so we can enjoy a moment of entertainment.” It’s the same thing segregationists said standing in school doorways, it’s what a bus driver said to Rosa Parks and what many said to Jackie Robinson.

So, to the baseball hall of fame (I use the lower case here intentionally – the hof has earned it), get your head out of the McCarthy black list septic tank. A movie about baseball can’t be celebrated because two actors in the movie exercised their right to be heard on a matter of public discussion in a way that had no reference to the hall?

White teammate Pee Wee Reese put his arm around Jackie Robinson when the racial slurs cascaded on Robinson’s head. Consider this two of millions of arms around Robbins and Sarandon.

Bad things happen when good people remain silent in the throes of evil. Hear the roar, Mr. Petroskey?

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.