Posted on 08/20/2008 6:56:25 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts
BEIJING - USA softball almost lost Wednesday. And this is what passes for exciting in this sport at the Olympics.
Japan nearly scored an upset. How fun for them.
"That was softball at its best," U.S. coach Mike Candrea said.
If that is truly the case, if a 4-1 victory in extra innings to extend Team USA's Olympic winning streak to 22 games is really the pinnacle, it is time for wrap-it-up sign. It has been fun, even entertaining at times, but it's time for softball to use this possibly permanent hiatus from The Game to fix what is obviously broken.
A pitching mound that is basically inches from home plate.
Tricked up rules, like putting a runner on second when extra innings begin.
And a lack of competition.
What we have going now is akin to awarding the Washington Generals the gold medal every four years. U.S. dominance in this sport is why many people suspect the IOC is dumping softball from the 2012 Games in London. That and they wanted baseball with their lack of big league players gone.
"If that is the reason, who wants to play in a sport where winning is bad?" centerfielder Caitlin Lowe said.
Hers is probably the best argument against banishing softball. Winning is not a bad thing. What the American women are missing is how boring this is for everybody but them. There is a reason softball games are half full in Beijing. Nobody wants to watch a sport where they know what is going to happen.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
Greetings,
I imagine you must be getting a fair amount of email about this column you wrote.
After I read it, I had a number of questions that I'd hoped you might be able to answer. First, do you believe that the US Team is the only team that allows spectators to view their games? You state that "There is a reason softball games are half full in Beijing." What reason is that? Because the US Team is playing? What are the attendance numbers like for games not involving the US Team? If the stands are half full for a game between China and Russia, what does that have to do with The US Team?
Second, how is banishing women's softball from the Olympics a fair solution to the other countries that field teams? You expect to tell them that because they have no hope of winning a gold medal, they may no longer compete? That's just bizarre.
Third, based on the arguments you use to support a ban on women's softball, what sport will you propose to ban next? Men's swimming? Men's basketball?
Surely, these must be banned because of the performance of the US athletes in Beijing.
(I'll alert you now that the above is sarcasm. Just in case you failed to recognize it.)
One of the time honored precepts of competition in sports is that we cannot hope to excel if we compete against inferior opponents. Only by competing against a superior opponent can we hope to improve our game and hone our skills.
I believe it is because the United States is the villain in your scenario that you propose this idiotic idea for a ban on softball. If the tables were turned and the Chinese team was 108-3 in Olympic play, would you have even written this column. I think not.
Cheers.
Recommendation: Replace softball with competitve bribery, female genital mutilation or child sex trafficking so other countries can get a medal sport tailored to their own strengths.
What about badminton? Most of the teams are from Southeast Asia.
The Georgian women's beach volleyball team consisted of two Brazilian women.
Most of the track & field Athletes get much of their training in the United States, starting in the NCAAs.
With this kind of thinking, I hope the Men's basketball team wins by 50 or better.
The Chinese have a hard time cheating.
Funny, I bet if the Chinese team were the favorite the stadiums would be filled. Womens volleyball is on every weekend in the summer, someones watching it, even though they pretty much know if May/Walsh are in the game they will win.
Watching greatness is its own reward.
They're getting rid of baseball as an Olympic sport, too -- and the U.S. has only won a gold medal (2000) and a bronze in the four Olympics since it was added in 1992. Cuba has won three of the four gold medals and won the silver in 1992.
I think there's an inherent bias in the IOC against these sports because they have almost no appeal in Europe.
Um, *most* of the events are only half full. The Chinese government is so afraid of protests that many Chinese with tickets are not allowed past security to see the events.
Thank God, they’re keeping men’s field hockey!
Bump for later
If one of the four 2016 summer olympics bidding cities, Chicago, in October gets the right to host the games, it could be possible to bring back both softball and baseball because of the American location.
Did any of you hear the interview with Crystl Bustos? She sure looks and sounds like a man.
...and synchronized swimming.
I’m staying up all nite for the BMX racing results!
Have you ever run across this Jennifer Floyd Engel idiot from the KC Star before?
She is not from the KC Star. That is just a reprint of her article. She is a local sports writer here in DFW with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She use to have her own radio show with ESPN, but got canned a year or so ago.
Good thing the 1980 olympic hockey pulled out,because they had no chance. Thank you Herb Brooks.
It should be excluded from the Olympics. Nobody else plays the sport. The fact that ours is the only country that really takes this sport seriously should tell you something. You don’t see American football in the Olympics for a very good reason. Might as well add the X games to the Olympics, we’d really rack up the gold medals there too. You can’t just add uniquely American sports to the Olympics, where few other countries compete.
FWIW, I don’t mind baseball being excluded as well.
She might be a mean nasty woman but she’s right. The way the US team has dominated softball has made the games painfully boring and has to play into why the IOC is dropping the sport. At least in beach volleyball it’s two players that are dominating and they’re getting old (for athletes) and should go away soon. In softball it’s been the machine that’s dominating and doesn’t look like it’s going to go away soon. Sports are supposed to be entertaining and sacrificing a bunch of teams every year to the maw of one completely dominating nation isn’t that entertaining.
It’s sad for the players but this one was easy to see coming.
On one hand, watching women’s softball is like watching grass grow - horribly boring. Not the players’ fault, either - it’s just that the pitchers dominate the game too much. Move the pitchers back about 10 feet (to give the hitters a sportin’ chance at hitting the best pitchers) and the games would be fun.
On the other hand, the sport is popular around the world. The fact that the best players are American should not disqualify the sport from the Olympics any more than badminton or ping-pong, where the Asians dominate.
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