You get what you deserve. Thats the bottom lin. MLB ignores World competitions because they only worry ABOUT DOLLAR SIGNS $$$. Now they anounce an attempt to CREATE A WORLD CUP by 2005...ummmmm HELLO a WORLD CUP OF BASBEALL already EXISTS!! And was just played!!!!! For naysayers the current WC of Baseball has been around for decades.
Why does MLB need to shut down? Cant some teams play a few weeks without 1 or 2 stars? Soccer does that all the time with the 15 different national teams every country has! MLB doesnt need to shut down for the olympics if each team gave 1 player. OH BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS GUYS STATS!!! HE WOULD NEVER WANT TO GIVE THAT UP FOR AN OLYMPIC GOLD!!
i think it is more than just money but isn't that your answer to everything; you really think any professional athlete wants to stop their regular season to play in the olympics in a fringe team-sport? hell the only reason hockey players did was b/c nobody would care if you had a bunch of minor leaguers who were fighting for the gold, the IOC had to have them around to keep it viable since it is one of the "important" winter sports...now the same thing is going to happen with baseball, except it is a much less needed sport and this may see the end of the sport in the olympics.
The problem is that, in baseball, taking one or two stars from a club can make a huge difference. Imagine what the Giants would be without Bonds, or the Phillies without Thome. This is because when you take a big bat out of the lineup, you not only have a large source of RBIs removed, but it changes on how other teams pitch to the rest of the lineup--which can futher decrease a team's RBI production. Taking out a team's star #1 pitcher would force clubs to bring up pitchers from the minors (who are not MLB ready) to make a few starts--which isn't good. Two weeks of clubs without their catalyst players can take a team right out of the pennant races. So sending players away to the Olympics while maintaining the MLB season's schedule is not an option. The only option would be to bring the season to a hault during the Olympics (like the NHL does). But the MLB front office has no desire to do this because they cannot extend the length of the season; and they don't want to shorten the season because that would result in a loss of revenue (not just ticket sales, but more importantly, TV contracts). Instead, MLB has expressed interest in a kind of compromise which would bring about the creation of an offseason world cup of baseball.
Not at all Benjamin. I don't feel there is a significant place for team sports in the Olympics (a few notable exceptions). Added to that is the fact that if it's not the pinnacle of the individual sport in question then there's even less reason to have a place in the Olympic roster. I don't think football should be there. There's the WC every 4 years to decide the best. OK, so it's now a U-23 competition. Is that really the essence of the Olympics? And besides, there's a U-23 WC. Rugby, cricket aren't there and should remain that way. For precisely the same reason as football. Tennis shouldn't be there either. Ask the Olympic gold winner whether they'd swap that medal for the Wimbledon title. Baseball has it's World Series in North America, and a WC at some point. The Olympic cometition clearly isn't top of that particular pile, so why bother having it in there? A sport IMO should only be in the Olympics if it considers the Olympics to be the top achievement. Athletics, rowing, sailing, fencing - whatever it is must hold the Olympics in the highest regard. Baseball doesn't. If the Olympics were as they formerly were, amateur, then this issue wouldn't be as large. But whilst you've got some professionals that can compete but choose not to - then it's clearly not worth doing. So, no, this time not an anti-American diatribe.
Sorry, not been reading this thread recently. Not knowing a blind thing about the sport, especially in it's Olympic format - I jumped on the info given by axis (I think) that the Greek team is made up of minor leaguers (ie Greek-Americans). I could be wrong of course.
No, you're correct. It'll be made up of mostly non-Greece based players. Here's a link to the Greeks official website. It lists the National Team Roster, which is all Greek. Then it goes on to list other players, all from the US or Canda, that will be playing for Greece or the European Championship. They've even got a link on the bottom of the page that says "Do you want to play for the Greek National Team in Athens 2004? Click here!!"
Well it looks like the failure of the US to make the baseball olympics in Athens has spurred more talk about the 2005 Baseball World Cup !! http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=1833352
Thanks for clearing that up. My apologies for jumping to conclusions. Generally, I agree with your points, especially "A sport IMO should only be in the Olympics if it considers the Olympics to be the top achievement." I sometimes put it less generously: The Olympics are for sports that nobody cares about the other 47 months (I realize that's a gross exaggeration).
I was also happy to hear: "In July 2005, baseball hopes to play a regular-season series in Europe, according to Archey, possibly in Rome's Olympic Stadium."
The olympic baseball tourney in Sydney did provide some good moments. One of those was the Netherlands beating Cuba. One wouldn't think that could possibly happen in any event. The problem with the Summer Olympics is that some of the lesser events could easily be put into the Winter Olympics, helping boost the underexposed event.
Like which ones? Baseball in the winter Olympics?? Infact anything that doesn't involve snow or ice in some way really shouldn't be there.
Re: Re: Re: US Baseball Fails To make it to Athens Australia would have to be in there with a chance.we have some gun baseball players that were born here. BTW: Im new in this place.so i dont know if im following the correct protocol.
Re: Re: Re: Re: US Baseball Fails To make it to Athens Didn't Australia disappoint in Sydney? I know that the Aussies were hoping to medal. Anyway, Australia has been producing some good young players in recent years. Chris Snelling, in particular, is a name to remember. He'll be a pretty good candidate for ROY in 2004 or 2005.
Wow I had not heard that one. That would be absolutely amazing! I just the Italians would care about it and show up. I dunno how big baseball is in Italy...
Re: Re: Re: Re: US Baseball Fails To make it to Athens I think Australia (providing they can get past Guam and South Africa) will have a tough time with Canada and especially Taiwan. Taiwanese baseball has improved significantly, as evidenced by the gritty come-from-behind 5-4 extra innings victory over South Korea.