Pegasus Interviews Dale Petroskey, President of the Baseball Hall of Fame

by Justin Smith

I caught up with Dale Petroskey, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame at the “Baseball As America” exhibit preview at The Museum of Nature and Science.

Pegasus News: Mr. Petroskey, several of today's best sportswriters have established themselves and made their careers through the Internet, including respected authors who for names such as ESPN or Sports Illustrated. At what point will the Baseball Hall of Fame acknowledge their achievements with voting rights?

Dale Petroskey: That’s a very good question. Well, I don't know, but you are right that the media has gone through a revolution and we don't want to remain static. People use to ask us why we didn't give sportscasters voting rights. Well, that’s because they are usually hired by their local baseball organizations, so they tend to be biased about their teams.

PN: But that’s not the case with a lot of the writers for the Internet. And combine that with the fact that the majority of sportswriters now are writers who write for the Internet.

DP: That’s true, and at some point we will have to change that. I can’t promise or say when that would happen. All I can say is we would have to scrutinize the writing of the people who are publishing sports stories on the Internet today.