U.S. Softball: The Lawn Grub of the Olympic Games’ Animal Kingdom
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images
It stings. You just know it still stings.
The U.S. Olympic softball team (67-4 since 2000) coasted into the gold medal game last summer against Japan and flopped. No one questioned that the U.S. were the far superior team, but still … they flopped. And they didn’t just flop in the most recent Olympics, they flopped in possibly the sport’s last Olympics. It’s old news that the International Olympic Committee rid itself of the undercompetitive baseball and softball competitions for London’s 2012 Games. Why pick at old wounds?
Because like improperly set broken bones, if they don’t heal correctly, they’re impossible to forget.
The IOC convened in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the changes in the sports that will be included in the 2012 Games, but also to discuss which two sports will be (re)introduced into the 2016 Games. They voted to recommend the reinstatement of rugby after an 85 year absence and golf, 105 years since its last Olympic appearance. Send your thank-yous to Tiger Woods.
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via AP
You just know it still stings that softball and baseball were the first sports to be dropped by the Olympics since 1940. Along with women’s boxing, mixed doubles tennis and the 50-meter swim sprints are vying to take softball’s place in 2012. But none of those events will be the sport’s main attraction. The men will still garner more attention in boxing, the singles will rule tennis and audiences will likely see the 50-meter sprint as just another in a long line of swimming heats. But for softball, the Olympics were the destination, not the detour. The Olympics were the sport’s grandest stage and not only did they fail in 2008, who knows when they’ll get a chance to redeem themselves. And if you’re an American with a passion for softball, you have to be worried about this Olympic drop. Rugby, if reinstated in ’16, was last played in the 1924 Games where the reigning gold medalist was – wait for it – the U.S. What a difference 85 years make. These days, rugby is somewhere just below the Wisconsin State Fair’s potbellied pig races among America’s most popular sports.
You just know it still stings that while softball’s chances for reinstatement were being trampled by golf and rugby sevens, the International Softball Federation was busy raising $100K to fly to Africa, a continent largely unaware of softball, in hopes of sparking a movement in popularity to demonstrate the sport’s universal appeal. They were also knocking on doors to see who might be interested in joining an Olympic mens softball league in conjuction with the reinstatement of the women’s sport. It might eventually work, but it won’t work quickly and with the newest ruling, one has to wonder if the ISF will have the passion to keep it going.
Where does the sport go now? What’s its endgame? The Olympics were once the sport’s endgame. There will be no softball for at least another 11 years (at best) because, as some have suggested, the U.S. team had been too dominant for too long.
You just know it still stings that the U.S. was dominant enough to crush their sport, just not dominant enough to crush Japan a year ago.
Here’s to hoping the Olympics grow past 28 sports. Maybe then, the U.S. softball team can get another crack at that gold.
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