The Thrill
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|  #1 Posted on 8.7.05 1727.11 | Instant Rating: 4.25 | God bless the men of 2nd Bn, 127th Inf, 32d "Red Arrow" Brigade, WI Army Nat'l Guard...good luck, and come home soon.
Baseball: a sport played all over the world? Not in the IOC's eyes...and neither is women's softball.
At their 117th session meeting today in Singapore, the IOC voted to drop the two sports from the 2012 Games, while keeping them on the official list of Olympic-eligible games.
(EDIT: This ESPN article says none of the five proposes sports on a waiting list--golf, rugby, squash, karate and roller sports--made the cut. That'll bring the Summer Games down to 26 sports, instead of the usual 28.)
(Source: US Olympic Committee press release)
Their reasoning? Steroid scandals, and the lack of MLB players in the Olympics. Are you freakin' kidding me!?
This in a year where MLB's Home Run Derby at the All-Star break has batters representing countries, not AL or NL. (Paging Ichiro...) Yeah, this is a sport with no international appeal whatsoever...ask the Cubans, Koreans or Japanese. Smooth move, IOC. You just told 16 teams and over 300 athletes that they're not welcome at the Games.
*rolls eyes* Ye Gods.
(edited by The Thrill on 8.7.05 1734)
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| #2 Posted on 8.7.05 1747.31 | Instant Rating: 7.54 | I think they could've kept softball, but baseball being dropped doesn't bother me. I think that, for the most part, Olympic events should only be those where the Olympic gold medal is the sport's ultimate goal, and with the World Series being that baseball wasn't ever going to be any more prestigious in the Olympics than it was. If they'd had Major Leaguers playing there wouldn't even be this discussion, as it would be in.
I just read something about the IOC wanting to limit the infrastructure needed for an Olympics. Did Athens keep their Olympic baseball stadium? Would London?
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| #3 Posted on 8.7.05 2013.19 | Instant Rating: 3.21 | This is just insult added to injury after us folks here in New York had our hearts broken. (Yes, there were plenty of us here who wanted the Olympics, and badly.)
I could understand this only if they'd lined up two other sports to replace them...
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|  #4 Posted on 8.7.05 2312.42 | Instant Rating: 1.00 | http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/news/050510worldcup.html
We can still see international competition in baseball as the World Baseball Classic, a world cup tournament for baseball is announce to take place March 2006.
And according to ESPN.com(http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2095719&CMP=OTC-DT9705204233 )it's suppose to be announce the day before the all-star game in Detroit.
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| #5 Posted on 9.7.05 0027.33 | Instant Rating: 1.96 |
I suspect that the WBC being initiated, with all of the world's best players, didn't help baseball stay in the Olympics. However, I think that the World Baseball Classic is likely to be a disaster. It'll be played before players are even really in shape to play, and the first time that a player gets injured (especially a pitcher) major league owners will cry foul and do everything they can to ensure that their players aren't able to participate. I hope I'm wrong though because in theory the WBC could be awesome.
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| #6 Posted on 9.7.05 0943.29 | Instant Rating: 2.01 | I don't agree with professional athletes appearing in the Olympics, so seeing BASEBALL get canned doesn't bother me.
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| #7 Posted on 9.7.05 1158.53 | Instant Rating: 1.96 | Originally posted by SOK
I don't agree with professional athletes appearing in the Olympics, so seeing BASEBALL get canned doesn't bother me.
Well, if they cared about professionalism, they'd have to get rid of every sport except for boxing. Baseball is one of the few sports where the best of the best don't compete.
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| #8 Posted on 9.7.05 1401.01 | Instant Rating: 4.50 | Originally posted by JayJayDean
I think they could've kept softball, but baseball being dropped doesn't bother me. I think that, for the most part, Olympic events should only be those where the Olympic gold medal is the sport's ultimate goal, and with the World Series being that baseball wasn't ever going to be any more prestigious in the Olympics than it was. If they'd had Major Leaguers playing there wouldn't even be this discussion, as it would be in.
I just read something about the IOC wanting to limit the infrastructure needed for an Olympics. Did Athens keep their Olympic baseball stadium? Would London?
I very much agree with the idea that Olympic events should be limited to those where that event represents the athelete's ultimate goal, or at least one of the top achievements in the sport. So there would be a good many more sports I would like to see dropped (there's too many to list here, but tennis and basketball pop into my head right away).
And I actually can see softball being dropped to. I'm not sure that the ultimate goal in that sport is the Olympics either. And from what I understand, softball really isn't competitive internationally, as it's dominated by the US team. That may well be reason enough to drop it.
(edited by ges7184 on 9.7.05 1402)
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| #9 Posted on 10.7.05 0719.09 | Instant Rating: 3.88 | Yes the softball team is awesome (and in my opinion was the most enjoyable part of the 2004 Olympics) and hasn't lost the Gold Medal since it became an Olympic sport, but that's not to say there isn't any other good teams. Japan, China, Canada, and Australia all have REALLY good teams. Plus the team had some changes the year, most notably the retirement of Lisa Fernandez, so who knows if they will be as good by 2008.
But I have heard some complaints about the softball team being too dominant, so tell me exactly how having Major League Baseball players in baseball is good. Wouldn't that just make the US and Domincan Repulblic as dominant in baseball as the softball team in the USA.
Also if softball is being hurt by baseball's steroids scandal then that's a joke.
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| #10 Posted on 10.7.05 1325.30 | Instant Rating: 5.12 | Hey, does anyone remember back in '92, when USA Basketball dominated? As long as you have a sport being played in other places (I don't know for sure if they actually do play softball in other places), a country won't be dominant for long.
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|  #11 Posted on 11.7.05 0255.57 | Instant Rating: 4.96 | Originally posted by ges7184
And from what I understand, softball really isn't competitive internationally, as it's dominated by the US team. That may well be reason enough to drop it.
(edited by ges7184 on 9.7.05 1402)
Dominated yes. But not to the extent that it wasn't worth anyone else turning up. The Aussies took silver at the last Olympics, and rolled them in a tournament today/yesterday.
It isn't like there aren't other sports where there are only 2 or 3 realistic chances of winning.
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,15894238-23210,00.html
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