By Staff
There are mistakes and then there are monumental gaffs that will be remembered for a lifetime.
The latter was the case this weekend when word came out that the Olympics will be without baseball and softball starting in 2012.
Are you kidding me?
With the exception of soccer and basketball I cannot think of two sports that are more universal than baseball and softball.
Apparently the committee in charge of such things feels that the sports are "too American."
Give me a break!
Yes, the United States has dominated in softball since it was admitted as a sport in 1996.
But baseball has been dominated by Cuba, not the United States since it was introduced back in 1992.
In fact, America has won just one Gold Medal in Olympic competition in baseball.
Softball is a huge sport in several parts of the world.
Two that jump immediately to mind are Japan and Australia.
Baseball is played in almost every nation on the planet.
Some believe that the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, a European, is anti-American.
Rogge tried back in 2002 in Mexico City to get the two sports, plus the modern pentathlon eliminated.
Rogge already seems to be back peddling.
In his announcement that the sports were eliminated after the 2008 Beijing Games, he said they were eligible to get back into the Olympics after the London Games.
Baseball and softball are the first Olympics sports cut since polo in 1936.
There are five sports on a waiting list to replace baseball and softball. They are golf, rugby, squash, karate and roller sports.
Those sports will certainly draw a crowd - NOT!
Don Porter, president of the International Softball Federation was quoted over the weekend that he didn't want to say it is a anti-United States sentiment, but he did point out that baseball and softball are both native to America.
The pentathlon survived based on the fact that it has been around since the first modern games in 1896, and the fact that it had European support.
It's a shame that the Olympics has lost its way. When professional athletes were allowed into the games over a decade ago, I lost interest in them.
Now it seems that the International Olympic Committee is only interested in making that almighty dollar.
It has been suggested that a tougher drug policy and using Major League Baseball players would help bring baseball back to the Olympics.
Too bad softball doesn't have a professional sports league that can provide "big-money" to the IOC.