IOOC eliminating baseball/softball

[CARLHAYDEN]

The IOOC has decided that the 2012 games should not include baseball or softball.

Apparently too many American victories are a basis for eliminating an olympic event.

[Akno21]

We didn't even make the Olympic level in baseball last time.

[Blue Rectangle]

IIRC the U.S. women routinely do well in softball, but olympic baseball belongs to the Cubans.

I really don't care that these are gone.

[© tweed]

The reason for eliminating baseball is the upcoming World Cup.
The reason for eliminating softball probably is American dominance.

[The Dowager Mod]

Or perhaps because no one cares except the US, cuba and taiwan.

[Hatman 🍁]

This is sad news. The Canadian baseball team did very well at the 2004 Olympics, and only lost out on a medal because we played the Cubans in the bronze medal final. (Damn aussies had to beat them in the semi's)

The summer olympics should really split up into a spring and an autumn games while having a much smaller summer games. Even if they did that, there would till be 30 more events than in the Winter, but it would be better for the olympics.

[MODU]

The reason for eliminating baseball is the upcoming World Cup.
The reason for eliminating softball probably is American dominance.

hehehe . . . you mean other countries have women softball leagues? 

[Platypus]

Australia did get silver in the softball last year, and in the baseball I think we got bronze-but most people just dont carer aout the sport here.

If one of the meddalist countries doesn't give a sh*t, you can bet most of the world doesn't. Ergo, I support their elimination. And kick out Handball, too.

[Hatman 🍁]

Australia did get silver in the softball last year, and in the baseball I think we got bronze-but most people just dont carer aout the sport here.

If one of the meddalist countries doesn't give a sh*t, you can bet most of the world doesn't. Ergo, I support their elimination. And kick out Handball, too.

Yeah. And we actually care about Baseball here. (well, not as much as the U.S.) So you can see how pissed I was when the aussies beat Cuba. (grrrr...) Anyways, the olympics should never be eliminating sports. I think rugby, golf and cricket all belong in the olympics for example.

[Richard]

The IOOC has decided that the 2012 games should not include baseball or softball.

Apparently too many American victories are a basis for eliminating an olympic event.

They're making way for the Olympic Aerobics teams.

[Hatman 🍁]

The IOOC has decided that the 2012 games should not include baseball or softball.

Apparently too many American victories are a basis for eliminating an olympic event.

They're making way for the Olympic Aerobics teams.

more like golf

[MissCatholic]

Might help if someone else played the game.

Also what about the drug policy of MLB. 10 game ban for steroid use, 20 game ban for abusing a cameraman. American logic?

[AuH2O]

It happened because the Committee is heavily European, where baseball is least popular... it's very popular in North America, various islands in the Americas, and parts of South America (i.e. Venezuela) in addition to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, with a lot of growth in Australia, China, and elsewhere.

Very bad decision that hopefully will be rectified for 2016. Maybe MLB should make a more concerted effort in Europe, but it's not an easy task. The game is more international than ever but that's a tough market because sports participation among youth is lower (organized at least) there and soccer has so many established rivalries.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

A contributing reason is likely the fact that gender-wise baseball is not PC, at the present time, almost no females play baseball even in the countries where it is popular.  Softball is less gender-centric, but the regular domination of the US at present makes it unpopular as an olympic sport.  I strongly doubt that baseball will return to the Olympics, but softball likely will once the US supremacy fades, and with both men's and women's teams.  The smaller and stardardized playing fields compared to baseball make it a more attractive sport for potential host countries that do not play it much.

[Hatman 🍁]

Yeah, it was funny because the host Greek team had to steal players from the U.S. and Canada who had greek heritage because no one plays baseball in Greece

[Jake]

We didn't even make the Olympic level in baseball last time.

Because Horacio Ramirez was our ace...

The main problem with baseball in the Olympics was the requirement that a team come from the host nation, two teams come from Europe. a team come from Oceania/Africa, and only two teams from the only places that play baseball, the Americas and Asia. The result last year was nobodies like Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands and in 2000 South Africa, Italy, and the Netherlands, getting absolutely hammered by decent US, Japanese, Korean, and Cuban teams. Hopefully, the World Cup idea will pan out and prove successfull.

[Hatman 🍁]

We didn't even make the Olympic level in baseball last time.

Because Horacio Ramirez was our ace...

The main problem with baseball in the Olympics was the requirement that a team come from the host nation, two teams come from Europe. a team come from Oceania/Africa, and only two teams from the only places that play baseball, the Americas and Asia. The result last year was nobodies like Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands and in 2000 South Africa, Italy, and the Netherlands, getting absolutely hammered by decent US, Japanese, Korean, and Cuban teams. Hopefully, the World Cup idea will pan out and prove successfull.

the US didnt make it because Canada beat them in qualifying.
(or Mexico beat them and then we Canada beat Mexico)

That is true though, Europe got too many entries.

[Јas]

Yeah. And we actually care about Baseball here. (well, not as much as the U.S.) So you can see how pissed I was when the aussies beat Cuba. (grrrr...) Anyways, the olympics should never be eliminating sports. I think rugby, golf and cricket all belong in the olympics for example.

Rugby would be difficult to work at Olympic level given the amount of recovery time needed between games and the relatively short time over which the Olympics is held. It would be unreasonable to expect the same team to line out more than once a week.
Also Scotland, Wales and England could not enter seperate teams, and the Lions experience shows that an amalgamation simply won't work.

[Platypus]

and the Lions experience shows that an amalgamation simply won't work.

depends on your point of view...

[Јas]

and the Lions experience shows that an amalgamation simply won't work.

depends on your point of view...

If an amalgamated team, such as the Lions, did not compete much more regularly on a longer term basis, they really wouldn't stand a chance.
A permanent amalgamation is not likely as it would remove at least 2 competitive international sides in a sport which realistically has only about a dozen reasonable sides.
Personally I don't get why there is a Lions side at all, any of the 4 nations (well maybe not Scotland) would have performed better on the NZ tour.

[minionofmidas]

Scotland, England and Wales could play a separate qualifier and be assured a berth.
This was actually done for a long while in olympic soccer if I recall correctly.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If an amalgamated team, such as the Lions, did not compete much more regularly on a longer term basis, they really wouldn't stand a chance.
A permanent amalgamation is not likely as it would remove at least 2 competitive international sides in a sport which realistically has only about a dozen reasonable sides.
Personally I don't get why there is a Lions side at all, any of the 4 nations (well maybe not Scotland) would have performed better on the NZ tour.

True. The other problem is that the coach of an amalgamated team tends to be biased towards players from his old team or country or whatever...

[Јas]

Scotland, England and Wales could play a separate qualifier and be assured a berth.
This was actually done for a long while in olympic soccer if I recall correctly.

Certainly a possibility.
This may be a stupid question, but is there anything against allowing all 3 in as UK entries?

True. The other problem is that the coach of an amalgamated team tends to be biased towards players from his old team or country or whatever...

Also true, I wonder what made you think of that
Not that I'm a big rugby fan or anything, but sending out a lot of guys who didn't play in the 6 nations, seemed fairly silly to me.

[freek]

and in 2000 South Africa, Italy, and the Netherlands, getting absolutely hammered by decent US, Japanese, Korean, and Cuban teams. Hopefully, the World Cup idea will pan out and prove successfull.

Hey! We Dutch beat the Cubans in 2000. The first time the Cubans ever lost a baseball match since the sport became olympic in 1988.

[minionofmidas]

And perhaps the last time as well...