So no Olympics In Baseball, No Roger in Athens http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...07/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_u_s__baseball_eliminated_2 What a shame!! The funny thing i find in this is how i really dont think that many people care about this loss. I have heard no public outrage as of yet. Mabe this really shows that the USA public only cares when team USA sports win and when they lose the public just lets it roll by.
Wow, and with South Korea being eliminated by Taiwan, that means two of Sydney's medalists are not going to be making the trip.
I really hate how they call it the World Series, i know its the best league and all the crap. And they have the worst looking trophy in pro sports. I cant tell what the hell is it? anyone know please help me out.. It looks like you could kill yourself if you fell on the thing
There's no outrage because nobody even knew the team was playing in the qualifying tournament. When the Olympics roll around people will be mystified by the lack of a US team. This format was pretty bogus, though. The USA went undefeated in its group, then lost a single elimination game to Mexico, which went 0-3 in its group, and that's the end of the line.
That's especially absurd considering that AFAIK baseball is the only NCAA team sport that uses a double-elimination national championship tournament.
Re: Re: US Baseball Fails To make it to Athens I'm usually one to laugh when a sporting misfortune or injustice happens to a given US team. But if the above is true - that does seem a touch harsh. So, given that the US and S Korea aren't up for it - who's getting the gold? I know nothing about baseball but do enjoy a wierd bet or two a week. I don't know what the odds are on Cuba but surely they're worth a go? They used to be, are they still?
Re: Re: Re: US Baseball Fails To make it to Athens Japan looked VERY good in going 3-0 in winning the Asian championship.
Cuba will be the favorite, altho Japan can't be counted out. Taiwan, Italy, and whoever the 2nd team from the Americas is (probably Canada) will be the dark horses. Is Greece going to field a team? If so, there may be a "Team USA" of sorts, as I'd imagine most of their players would be Americans of Greek heritage...
Re: Re: Re: US Baseball Fails To make it to Athens Cuba still has to win two more games to qualify...Brazil tomorrow should be easy (although Brazil almost beat them in the world championships a couple weeks ago), but Puerto Rico is capable of beating them in the semifinal. The big beneficiary is Canada, who only have to beat Colombia and Mexico (who they beat 8-2 in the group stage) to qualify. Originally there were supposed to be 12 or 13 teams in the tournament, but a bunch dropped out at the last minute, rendering the format pretty lame--and baseball is a bad sport for single elimination in the first place.
Yeah, Peter Angelos has been funding their team...it'll be mostly minor leaguers with Greek ancestry.
To those Americans who hate missing out on '04. We went through the same thing at the '99 Pan-Am Games, which served as Olympic qualifiers. We finsihed at the top of our group, beating the US and Cuba in the process. We lost to the Cubans in the semis and had to sit on the sidelines for Sydney. I'm sure the IOC and IBA will have back-ups to get the US somehow into the tourney. There was one in place for Sydney if it was needed. The blame should be on the Euros, they have 3 places for the Olympics.
Re: Re: US Baseball Fails To make it to Athens Exactly. Baseball is a sport where crappy teams win 40% of the time. Still, I'm happy for Mexico. I hope the Expos play some games there next year.
this is funny... like others have said, the team goes undefeated in group play and then loses a game to mexico and is out? i mean come on, are you kidding me? baseball is not the kind of sport that should have a single elimination tournament...bogus... that being said... who cares what elimination it is, an american baseball team should not be losing to mexico, there is no excuse. this would be like luxembourg beating england in WCQ'ing, just shouldn't happen...ever...
You're underestimating the passion that the game is played with in some areas in Mexico...........If you had said that a Major League American team should never be losing to a Mexican team then I'd believe you. In this tournament it was basically our Minor leaguers against their pro's (probably minor league maybe some major league material).
re: Cuba for Gold. So I've got to narrow it down to Cuba, Japan, PR or Canada? Damn, I know nothing. But the beauty with this country is that no-one else knows anything about baseball either so the odds don't get messed around too much. "In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king" is appropriate. And with my one eye, I'm going for Cuba...or Japan....or... Made me laugh. Was reminiscent of "How the hell does CONCACAF deserve 4 spots???" type diatribe that floats around these boards.
Cuba won the gold in 1992, which was baseball's first year as an Olympic sport, and 1996. There's a move on to eliminate it as an Olympic sport. Here's my favorite quote from Tommy Lasorda: "I can't believe it! It's a shock and disgrace that Americans won't be represented in the Olympics. Baseball is America's game. It doesn't belong to the Cubans or the Koreans or the Italians. This is sad, very sad."
What a xenophobic quote. Yeah the game doesn't belong to them, but it doesn't belong to us either - that's the price for being an international and Olympic sport. Nobody is going to cry about the US missing out on a tournament, buit jeez what a dumb setup. Just as dumb as when winless Belarus upset Sweden in hockey last time out and Sweden was done.