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420420420 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-11-2005, 04:56 PM

Dropping Baseball, Softball an Olympic-Sized Mistake
IOC Shows Anti-American Bias With Sport Subtractions
By JIM ARMSTRONG, AOL Exclusive

So once again, the IOC has lived up to its nickname: Idiots On Crack.
How else do you explain softball and baseball being dumped from the 2012 Olympics? Well, other than the obvious reason, that is. The powers that be in the Olympics detest Americans.

Apparently, they're not that keen on studying history, either, since they'd all be speaking German and wearing brown shirts if it weren't for Uncle Sam.

But I digress.

All you really need to know is this: Softball and baseball, two of the fastest-growing sports in the world, are out, and synchronized swimming, water polo and archery, the holy trinity of insomnia cures, are in.

Makes sense if you think about it. Provided you're a self-important Eurocrat with an agenda.

Not that it's any of my business, but did any of the stuffed shirts on the International Olympic Committee take attendance at the 2004 Games in Athens? If so, they would have seen packed or nearly packed houses for baseball and softball. Archery? There weren't enough people watching archery to fill the night shift at Denny's.

Talk about ironic. The same week the IOC announced it was bagging baseball and softball, Major League Baseball announced one of its coolest innovations in years. This week's Home Run Derby in Detroit will be contested among players from eight countries.

Moral to the story: The U.S. is just another face in the crowd these days when it comes to baseball. But if you need more proof, check out the past four Olympics, when Team USA has mustered all of two medals - one gold, one bronze.


The reason, of course, is that we don't send Major Leaguers to the Games. If we did, the U.S. would dominate just as it does in basketball, where our NBA players have proven to be invincible. What's that? Oh, yeah. Never mind.

There's been speculation in the aftermath of last week's announcement that the IOC is troubled by allegations of steroid use among U.S. baseball players.

Yeah, right. As if the Olympics has never had issues with steroids. Ever hear of track and field, wrestling and weight lifting? For that matter, some of those East German women's swimmers used to look like Hulk Hogan in curlers.

No, this all comes down to a simple matter of geography. Fifty seven of the 116 IOC delegates come from Europe, and they don't much care for sports Americans care about. Trouble is, Americans aren't the only ones who care about them.

Take softball, for instance. Twenty years ago, it was a niche sport in the United States. Today, there are 126 national softball teams throughout the world. And you thought golf was the fastest-growing women's sport.

You honestly think there are 126 countries with a passion for archery? Or taekwando? Or badminton? They all made the cut ahead of baseball and softball. So did beach volleyball, the national pastime of Iceland, no doubt.


Don't get me wrong, I'm all for badminton. Any sport you can play with a cold beer in one hand and a racquet or ball in the other is OK by me. But why keep it and get rid of two sports whose popularity continues to spread? Sounds like synchronized stupidity to me.

What, like the United States and Latin America have a monopoly on talented ballplayers? Apparently those members of the IOC have never heard of Ichiro Suzuki or Hideki Matsui. I'd give you the entire list of big leaguers from Asia, but there isn't enough room in the tight confines of cyberspace.

The only logical conclusion to all this is that the IOC wants to limit the number of medals the United States wins in future Olympics. Either that or its members have been too busy following their own favorite sports to pay any attention to softball and baseball.

Which brings us to soccer, yet another sport that made the cut at the expense of baseball and softball. While most Americans would rather total their cars or eat liver than watch soccer, it was, is and always will be Europe's favorite sport. It shows on the medals stand, too, where the United States shows up about as often as Jimmy Hoffa.

But when is the last time you heard a U.S. Olympic Committee official say soccer ought to be dropped from the Olympics? That would be never. As in, when is the last time the IOC did something that made any sense?

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/sports/ar...05130609990022

premont · #2 (**permalink**) 07-11-2005, 05:29 PM

yeah thats pretty dumb, espeically because not only is America playing it, but all of latin america, japan and many others for sure, just look at the little league world series. Archery and synchronized swimming? wow thats sad, but water polo is wicked fun and from the videos i saw in gym class looks really competative

sidious · #3 (**permalink**) 07-11-2005, 06:27 PM

don't get me wrong i like the odd baseball game, i went to the see the yankees when i was over there, but some of the games can be downright boring...........football (soccer) is rarely boring, and is played throughout the world on quite a big scale apart from the U.S...........hence why football is there............as for archery etc, i don't care much for them, however they've allways been there, since the early games..........i think there's room for it too, but i can see why they would opt the other way too..............as for the USA and football, their getting better all the time, and beat Portugal last time i seen them play, i'd give them another 10 years and they'll be a force to be reckoned with..............i mean how hard can it be out of what 50 states, most bigger than the U.K...........and a pool of over 160,000,000 people to find about 25 players that are football mad and skillfull...............Peace out..........Sid

Fëanor · #4 (**permalink**) 07-11-2005, 11:51 PM

I think the author is letting his anger cloud his judgement. He tries to say that the removal of baseball and softball is an act against America, and yet he tries to say that "The U.S. is just another face in the crowd these days when it comes to baseball."

I think it's obvious that he's just an angry baseball fan, and he wants to rally support so he's accusing that baseball was removed because everyone hates Americans.

Switch · #5 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005, 12:11 AM

At the end of the day no one on the IOC, i am sure, hates Americans. But that doesn't mean that they must put in a sport which no one else apart from the Americans and Japs play in their own country. Football (not soccer- that's a stupid name for it- your foot connects with the ball. American football should IMO be called wimps' rugby but anyways) is a sport that is played the world over- apart from North America.

Just because somewhere has a team it doesn't mean it's popular. A team is only 11 people per capita (I dunno how many on a baseball team hence I'm going by the football numbers).

Your argument basicly boils down to- America should have a sport which only it can really win and any sport that America's not the best at should be dumped. In short it's the "I should always win" mentality of a child.

Don't be foolish- no one hates Americans but when some of you guys think we ought to bow to the every whim of Americans just like this then you are viewed with ridicule.

Oh and on the WWII front that is the most LAME excuse ever. You only got involved when Europe was already five years into it's seven year conflict. Besides; like that gives the US license to do whatever it likes now. Get over yourself and your country it's no better than any other country on the planet- just richer and more powerful.

Fëanor · #6 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005, 12:57 AM

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