Do not watch the Olympics

I used to love watching the Olympics. In the Winter Games I love the ski jump, bobsled and speed skating the most. I actually enjoy watching curling and in the Olympics I will even watch figure skating.

But since Thursday's news I will not watch the Olympics on TV again. I will follow them, but only through the sports reports.

What happened?

[Baseball and softball] lost votes for reconsideration. They will be Olympic sports for the last time at Beijing in 2008.

Needing 45 votes of 88 cast, baseball got 42. Softball needed 46 votes of 90 but got only 43.

The election gave a significant victory to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, who had considered the original vote final last July in Singapore.

OK, so they become the first votes eliminated in quite some time.

The decision, made during a secret vote in Singapore, is effective for the 2012 London Games, meaning the two sports will have a final fling at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The sports, the first eliminated since polo in 1936, are eligible to reapply for the 2016 Games.

It has been 70 years since a sport was eliminated. They have "sports" like ball room dancing but are booting baseball and softball. I wonder why.

"I didn't say this in Singapore," said Don Porter, president of the International Softball Federation, "but it's an anti-American thing."

Say it ain't so.

U.S. women won all three gold medals since softball joined the Olympics, at the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Games. American pitcher Lisa Fernandez, a three-time gold medalist, blamed the decision on IOC president Jacques Rogge.

“Rogge has basically conspired against the sports to get them removed. We had done our job as a sport world wide to show we belong,” she said. “I feel one person, the president of the IOC, a person from Europe, has taken it upon himself to ruin the lives of millions, actually billions of women.”

Crystl Bustos, who hit a record five homers during the 2004 Olympics, said the one-sidedness of the softball tournament should not have been used as a factor. The Americans outscored opponents 51-1.

“If that did play a role in the decision, then that’s pretty pathetic,” she said. “I don’t mean to cut anybody down, but it’s supposed to be the best of the best, and if you get knocked for your excellence, then that’s just not right.”

Two-time gold medal-winning infielder Dot Richardson said the Olympic dream “was ripped away from the 126 countries that play the sport of softball, that just vanished.”

Is there really any other reason the IOC would end baseball/softball? They kept basketball even though for decades the United States dominated. In fact, they have won the Gold in every Olympics except 1972 when they were robbed, 1980 when the Jimmy Carter did not allow the United States to participate in the Games and 2004 when we sent a bunch of losers. 2004 was the first legimate non-gold medal Olympics for the United States. And they still kept basketball.

There really was no reason to drop baseball. It is not an American sport...maybe a North American/South American/Central American/East Asian/Caribbean sport. But could the same thing be said about a lot of winter sports? Many of the Winter Games are Scandinavian/European dominated sports. Based on ANY reasoning for eliminating baseball/softball you would need to eliminate many other sports as well.

What should we do? I would stand behind George Bush if he decided in 2008 that the IOC has made it clear Americans are not wanted. We will not go to the 2008 games in Beijing. Oops...suddenly a lot of tourist money and most of the television revenues are gone. I would stand behind the President (whatever the party) if they say the same for the 2012 Games in London, and the ESPECIALLY for 2010 games in Vancouver.

Removing baseball/softball was a purely anti-American move. They want America to be around to give them the money, television residuals, tourism, corporate sponsorships and participate in events that we are not the top in. But baseball is American bred, is the American pasttime and thus is not welcome in the Olympics. In other words, we are only good enough to fund them all and exist to be kicked around (like our role in the UN). So pull up the tent and let them figure it out without us.

I used to love watching the Olympics. Have done so since my first memories of them in 1976. I got cable in 2000 so I could watch the litany of channels that covered the Olympics. I am not watching any of the games anymore.