Michigan State University Athletics
Dale A. Petroskey To Be Honored At MSU Baseball First Pitch Dinner
12/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Dec. 21, 2006
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State baseball program is pleased to announce that Dale A. Petroskey, President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, will be honored as the MSU Baseball Alumnus of the Year at the second-annual First Pitch Dinner on Sunday, Feb. 18. The event will be held at the LaSalle Bank Club level at Spartan Stadium. Tickets to the event include a dinner, season tickets, a media guide, a Spartan baseball and a chance to win door prizes. Other baseball celebrities are also scheduled to attend the event, including Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, and there will be a silent auction with numerous items of baseball memorabilia. The banquet time and ticket information will be announced in the coming weeks.
"Michigan State and especially the MSU baseball program are both thrilled and privileged to be honoring a great person and a tremendous baseball man in Dale Petroskey," said head coach David Grewe. "As he follows in the footsteps of other great Spartans to be named MSU Baseball Alumnus of the year, Dale is a perfect representative of this award. As we kick off our 2007 season and announce our excitement for the upcoming schedule, it will be very special to share this with Dale. February is a great month to kick off the season for baseball."
Petroskey, a 1978 Michigan State graduate, became the fifth president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in July 1999. He oversees the 66-year-old national shrine dedicated to preserving baseball history and telling the story of its role in American culture.
The museum's mission is to preserve history, honor excellence, and connect generations. Only one percent of those privileged to play Major League Baseball are immortalized with a plaque in the Hall of Fame.
The non-profit educational membership organization opened its doors in 1939, and today occupies 50,000 square feet, employs 90 full-time staff members and attracts about 350,000 visitors a year to Cooperstown, New York. The museum's collections contain more than 165,000 items, and its library catalogs and preserves more than 2 million documents, 500,000 historic photographs, and 12,000 hours of original TV and radio recordings.
Prior to joining the Hall of Fame, Petroskey served at the National Geographic Society for 11 years, the last three as Senior Vice President for Mission Programs. From 1985-1987, he served in the White House as Assistant Press Secretary to President Ronald Reagan.
Petroskey married the former Ann Holiday Grover after both graduated from Michigan State University. They have three children - Kathleen, 18, Frank, 16, and Claire, 15 - and live in Cooperstown.
