Sadly, baseball and softball have been removed from the Olympics:
SINGAPORE — Baseball and softball were tossed out of the Olympic program for the 2012 London Games — the first sports cut from the Summer Games in 69 years. The International Olympic Committee then rejected the five sports wanting to get in.I understand cutting sports for other sports. I wrote last month that baseball was likely to fall out in favour of rugby, and indeed, as far as world popularity is concerned, rugby might even be a better choice, what with the Rugby World Cup being apparently the third-most watched sporting event in the world and all. But to cut two sports just for cutting's sake without replacing them seems ridiculous.
Taken from Singapore Sox Fan
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
thanks Daryl, I agree, in fact it's insane, especially softball which doesn't have the obvious other outlets baseball does. Assholeatry!
2 - Daryl
Yes, in fact I can sort of understand the IOC's view on baseball, since the best players in the world clearly don't take part in the Olympics. Softball, on the other hand, needs the Olympics.
3 - Fei
good decision these sports are played by very few countries...they shouldn't be represented at olympics. I would rather have cricket in the olympics.
4 - Eric Olsen
Baseball: North America, Central America, South America, Caribbean, East Asia, growing in Europe
5 - Eric Olsen
and Australia
6 - Bryan McKay
I always thought the Olympics were better when focused on the less appreciated sports. How often do you see gymnastics on television? Baseball (correct me if I'm wrong) is usually played by professional players, rather than the amateurs that the Olympic spirit thrives on. I'm all for softball being in the Games, as you never see this on TV, but baseball is already a huge commercial enterprise and doesn't really need the global exposure.
7 - Tan The Man
There goes another pretty much guaranteed gold medal for the US. (softball)
8 - Matthew T. Sussman
The U.S. baseball teams are usually represented by minor league players and one or two old veterans.
And even if they never make into the big leagues, they can say they represented their country.
Doug Mientkeiwicz now has a gold medal and a World Series ring. C.C. Sabathia should get a Cy Young in his career, as will Ben Sheets and/or Roy Oswalt.
Sean Burroughs may be one of the few people with an gold medal and a Little League World Series championship.
Brad Wilkerson is a pro too. Ryan Franklin. Adam Everett. Kurt Ainsworth. At the time it was a good list of future players, and now it's a solid core of current pro players.
This is a sad day for the Olympics.
9 - Temple Stark
I tried to understand the IOC reasoning on this. They said baseball doesn't attract the best players. but it was only recently - and I remember the debate that tennis pro players were even allowed. The argument then was that professionals shouldn't be allowed.
10 - Terra
as eric said, softball doesnt have the other outlets that baseball has. the decision to cut softball from the olympic games is rediculous. as a softball player, this upsets me even more. the olympics are a chance for softball to get more coverage than it normally does, exposing young girls to the game and giving them positive female athlete role models. bryan made a very good point as well. no matter how you look at it, softball should not be cut from the olympics
11 - Tan The Man
What has happened to softball for the Olympics has become the opposite for women's soccer here in the US. The Women's Pro League folded, but will always have a team at the Olympics.
12 - bhw
I also saw a story that said part of the reasoning is cost and practicality. Baseball requires a baseball stadium, and lots of host countries don't have them. So they build them for the olympics and then don't have much use for them afterward.
13 - Eric Olsen
it doesn't require a dedicated stadium, that's just an excuse - it hurts the smaller baseball-playing countries a lot more than it hurts us
14 - madgirl
i love softball for them to take it away from my future is like murder!!!!!!
15 - Pat Bateman
This issue is not even a close call. Softball has little to no importance on a world scale. The idea of the Olympics is to have competition in sports and events that are accessible to at least a relatively large group of countries. Although I am an American and can surely see the importance of softball in this country, that does not make it a worldwide sport. Criket and rugby are appreciated by far more people in the world, the former being the national sport of India with over a billion people. Although I could care less about criket, it would only be fair to include it instead of softball. Softball's inclusion in the first place was clearly the US bullying the IOC. If softball, why not hurling from Ireland? It's ridiculus.
16 - nicolas
i cant help but agree. does anybody actually care to watch the US team mercy-ruling every game in pool play, while at the same time you have teams like the Netherlands, who have only qualified twice and gotten creamed both times? That isn't competition.
Softball is actually growing a bit internationally, mostly on the coattails of baseball. I say give it some time, but that probably wont happen - they're already discussing strongarming the IOC to bring both sports back for 2016 if the Olympics wind up in the states.
17 - bliffle
All team sports should be eliminated. Only individual athletes, without national designation, should be allowed in Olympic events. They should wear plain white or gray outfits free of national or commercial ornamentation.
Well, somebody had to say it.
18 - Sam
As far as a single country's dominance goes, the world leader in a sport is always changing.
-The Netherlands were able to defeat the Dominican Republic in the World baseball Classic.
-The USA lost to Japan in the Gold metal game of the Olympics.
-Australia has successfully been able to rise in the Olympic softball competition.
Many girls look up to the Olympic softball players and excluding softball from the Olympics is killing the dreams of thousands of girls.
If softball is not admitted into the 2016 Summer Olympic Game, it will never be able to truly recover, it will lose the little following it currently has and will become the next tug-of-war.