Friday 8 July 2005
Baseball and Softball dropped from London 2012
Today the International Olympic Committee members voted to drop Baseball and Softball from the London Olympics, the first sports to be axed in 69 years. 26 sports will now be played out in the capital city.
On the face of it, you would have thought that this would only effect American's and in Softball, where American's have won the last 3 golds this is the case but this is not true in baseball.
In recent years the game here has been dominated by players from Cuba, Panama, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and for many small Caribbean and Latin American countries this is their only ticket to the Olympic stage.
"It was a shock," Chicago White Sox pitcher Jose Contreras, who played Cuba in the 2000 Olympic Games, said through a translator. "Not having the Olympics will be a big hit in Cuba and for the fans in Cuba." (more)
And who are the non-American players blaming for the decision? Not the IOC, but the major American stars who are more worried about their multi-million contracts in the MLB, than representing their country and the owners of the professional leagues who in the past have taken playing for your country as not important. Why would you want to win a medal when you can win the world series without even leaving these shores? Then there is the small issue of tighter drug testing at the Olympics than in the MLB, not that players are worried about that, no of course not!
In very few sports do America excel in team games, as a nation. Cuba won the baseball gold at last year's Athens Olympics and a weakened American team didn't even make the final of the basketball. Argentina won the gold as mega star NBA players stayed at home worried about terrorism.
In the 2002 winter Olympics Canada won the ice hockey gold. Of course the European's proved that team work and the will to win can surpass talent at last summer's Ryder Cup. American Football is not even considered an Olympic sport, although it did have a trial run in 1904 and 1932. Womens beach volleyball, now that's another thing!
America has some of the most talented sportsmen and women on the planet but in the high profile team games they for do not have the ambition it seems to want play as a nation to win one of the most coveted things in the world - a gold medal. ¶ 14:51
On the face of it, you would have thought that this would only effect American's and in Softball, where American's have won the last 3 golds this is the case but this is not true in baseball.
In recent years the game here has been dominated by players from Cuba, Panama, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and for many small Caribbean and Latin American countries this is their only ticket to the Olympic stage.
"It was a shock," Chicago White Sox pitcher Jose Contreras, who played Cuba in the 2000 Olympic Games, said through a translator. "Not having the Olympics will be a big hit in Cuba and for the fans in Cuba." (more)
And who are the non-American players blaming for the decision? Not the IOC, but the major American stars who are more worried about their multi-million contracts in the MLB, than representing their country and the owners of the professional leagues who in the past have taken playing for your country as not important. Why would you want to win a medal when you can win the world series without even leaving these shores? Then there is the small issue of tighter drug testing at the Olympics than in the MLB, not that players are worried about that, no of course not!
In very few sports do America excel in team games, as a nation. Cuba won the baseball gold at last year's Athens Olympics and a weakened American team didn't even make the final of the basketball. Argentina won the gold as mega star NBA players stayed at home worried about terrorism.
In the 2002 winter Olympics Canada won the ice hockey gold. Of course the European's proved that team work and the will to win can surpass talent at last summer's Ryder Cup. American Football is not even considered an Olympic sport, although it did have a trial run in 1904 and 1932. Womens beach volleyball, now that's another thing!
America has some of the most talented sportsmen and women on the planet but in the high profile team games they for do not have the ambition it seems to want play as a nation to win one of the most coveted things in the world - a gold medal. ¶ 14:51
