Olympics Drop Baseball and Softball

[DeclinetoState]

July 8, 2005

By LYNN ZINSER (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=LYNN ZINSER&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=LYNN ZINSER&inline=nyt-per)</NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>

Reversing the expansion instincts that have gripped the Olympic movement for more than 50 years, the International Olympic Committee voted baseball and softball out of the Games in 2012 at its meeting in Singapore today, and instead of replacing them, simply decided to go small.

"We are now an Olympics of 26 sports," the committee's president, Dr. Jacques Rogge, told reporters after the vote.

The surprise came in two waves. First, the decision to drop baseball and softball came when the 114 committee members were asked to approve or disapprove all 28 summer Olympic sports. That followed a week of speculation by members that none of the sports would be eliminated.

Instead, the committee failed to support baseball, which officially joined the Games in 1992 and softball, which was added in 1996.

It was the first time the International Olympic Committee eliminated any sports in 69 years.

Both baseball and softball suffered from low international support because they are not widely played, despite their Olympic inclusion, and remained dominated by North American teams. Cuba won three of the four baseball gold medals and the United States won the other.

The United States won all three softball gold medals. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/sports/othersports/08cnd-olympics.html?ei=5088&en=23df82c307c5d3da&ex=1278475200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

In other words, they'd rather not have any sports in which the U.S. might be good.


The rationale for dumping baseball is weak, especially since it would be virtually impossible for MLB to take a break in the middle of its season to allow its best players to go to the Olympics. It's different for basketball, whose Olympic competition is in the off-season or pre-season. The problem for baseball is similar to that for ice hockey, but who cares about hockey anymore?

The rationale for screwing softball is even worse.

[shoemoodoshaloo]

WAIT WAIT WAIT!

So, baseball is not an olympic sport but curling is?

:hahaha:

[DeclinetoState]

Not to mention synchronized swimming and diving, rhythmic gymnastics, and several other trashsports. :(

[nene]

IMO, all team sports should be eliminated from the Olympics. The gold medalist should be the best in the world on that day. On a team, a person can play in a very limited capacity and still get a gold medal.

[Beowulf]

I agree, this sucks! On the other hand, we just took the only gold medal away that Cuba wins in the summer games.

Either way, I'm more into the winter games since I'm a former skiier.

[DesertFox]

I'm with nene. Team sports don't belong in the Olympics. I love baseball but never watch Olympics baseball. I like softball but switch to other channels when it's on. When curling's on I shoot the teevee.

[nene]

Wrestling, boxing, weight lifting, track and field are my favorites. I like lots of others.

[DeclinetoState]

I think they should get rid of all sports that have to be judged. All too often judges are biased, no matter what the scoring or judging system is that's in place.

It will never happen, though, since some sports, like figure skating, boxing and gymnastics, are very popular even though they are judged. In addition, sometimes the soap opera surrounding biased judging is more interesting than the events themselves. Perhaps they could start a soap opera and call it "As the Torch Burns" to placate women whose soap operas are pre-empted by Olympic coverage.

[Incident_command]

Wrestling, boxing, weight lifting, track and field are my favorites. I like lots of others.

Notice they have very little coverage of boxing and wrestling, they are violent sports and not PC. But man do they stuff figure skating and ribbon dancing down our throats.

[DeclinetoState]

Didn't Muammar Qaddafi send a letter or telegram to Juan Antonio Samaranch during the Barcelona Olympics bitching about violent sports at the Games such as "boxing, wrestling, and bullfighting"?

[Beowulf]

I think they should get rid of all sports that have to be judged. All too often judges are biased, no matter what the scoring or judging system is that's in place.


Don't even get me started on this. Anyone remember the French judge during the pairs figure skating during the SLC winter Olympic games? The Canadian couple clearly beat the Russians but the former Eastern Block countries struck a deal with the French judge to swing their way even though the Russian couple fell once and stumbled twice during it's routine whereas the Canadians skated their cleanly. The French Judge was barred from the Olympics, then and in the future.

Unless something is done about this kinda politicing, this won't be the last we hear of such occasions.

[Longhorn_Platinum]

Team sports don't belong in the Olympics.

:moo: I heartily agree. The ancient Olympics had only individual sports. Besides, it looks retarded to have 27 people on the platform receiving medals, instead of the usual three.

:moo: We might also consider doing away with sports that require judging. There's just too much politics involved. Although, I'd hate to see the loss of gymnastics.

[nene]

Notice they have very little coverage of boxing and wrestling, they are violent sports and not PC. But man do they stuff figure skating and ribbon dancing down our throats.Indeed.

[Uncle Fester]

The Olympics have also suffered in recent years from the blurring of amateur status. Michael Jordan playing for a basketball gold medal? Steffi Graf playing for a tennis gold medal?

The communists were the ones who tainted the system by creating lifetime athleticism as a career field--providing a phony job to the athlete and taking care of all their living expenses.

[BEST45CAL]

They never show the shooting events on TV, either.

I just hope they don't replace baseball with bowling. LOL:laugh:

[DeclinetoState]

At least for now (meaning 2012) they won't be replacing baseball or softball with anything. But I'm sure they'll come up with a synchronized rhythmic something-or-other for the program.

Actually, I would prefer to see more team sports, not less. A lot of the individual athletes are jerks. Some of the "individual" sports (e.g., track and field--er, "athletics"--swimming) have relay events that are really "team" sports. Other "individual" sports (e.g., gymnastics, wrestling) use a combination of indivdual performances to decide a "team" medal.

[Beowulf]

They never show the shooting events on TV, either.



You can thank the Liberal Left Wing anti-gun media for that one.

[Incident_command]

Maybe they can replace it with a good game of grab ass

[elessar2371]

Actually, they're thinking of replacing it with rugby sevens. Me personally, since I play rugby, I'd rather watch rugby than baseball. Softball on the other hand...Cat Osterman...:lovu:

[Teenager]

The committee also decided to drop the Triathalon races in favor of "Duck, duck, goose" for the 2012 games.