London 2012 Olympics

Team USA basketball is putting on quite a show in this 3rd quarter vs. Argentina. Durant is ridiculous!!!

Enkidu wrote:

dottles wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

Why is baseball not in the Olympics? Yet syncronized swimming/diving is? Archery? Shooting and I'm sure many more ridulous stuff.

Probably because baseball is only played in certain areas of the planet, where as other sports whilst minority are competed in all over the world.
Baseball was in in 92, 96, 00, 04, 08 (Cuba winning the most golds) but was removed by the IOC, it will not be in the 16 games either but can be reinstated in the future if it meets IOC criteria.
If baseball is reinstated then cricket and rugby should be too!!

Agree. Yes to baseball and cricket and rugby. Get rid of all the synchro stuff. Diving used to be fun to watch, I don't give a rat's ass if someone does it at the same time exactly as somebody else. So what?

The diving is technically one of the most difficult sports, in order to complete those dives the divers have to train and learn so much and they've one go... I think the thing is how high the standard is now, it's hard for any to stand out. Solo dives are later this week btw.

btw archery is pretty popular where I am in the UK, my old boss competes and has competitions all over the country. Sports aren't daft just because they don't have multi million pound investments/publicity/overpayed players.

dimitrispearljam wrote:

Indifference71 wrote:

Team USA basketball is putting on quite a show in this 3rd quarter vs. Argentina. Durant is ridiculous!!!

yep..watching that!!!

Argentina pissed off the wrong team. Not a good move with the cheap shot on Anthony by Campazzao....cheap shot right to the nuts. I hope we play these guys in the semifinals...they will destroy this team.

lukin2006 wrote:

Why is baseball not in the Olympics? Yet syncronized swimming/diving is? Archery? Shooting and I'm sure many more ridulous stuff.

It was simply because it wasn't popular enough with viewers if i remember correctly. All the best players in the world play in the major league, and none of them would go to the Olympics because it's in the middle of the season. The teams wouldn't want their best players to go off and play in the olympics and risk injury or anything mid-season, even if they were willing to have a break for 2 weeks, which they aren't. So not enough people gave a shit about watching players not good enough to play major league ball, since the olympics are supposed to feature the best in the sport. Understandable. If NHL players couldn't play in the winter olympics, i wouldn't care; i'd rather just watch NHL games. I don't even think players jn the minors could go either, since they would also have to stay home and play, be available to be called up, etc. So you'd be left with who? Those not even good enough for the minor league. That's my take on it anyway.

Synchro swimming is HARD though. Don't knock it too quickly. That shit takes real fitness and strength and years of training, even if it does look kind of silly to a lot of people.

For the longest time Olympics didn't have the best in sport...it wasn't till the mid 90's or something like that till paid professionals were allowed. Basebali is a sport that should be in the Olympics...fail to see why popularity should have anything to do with it, most of those other sports no one gives a damn about till the Olympics. At least baseball was somewhat competitive. Unless it's a fluke no one will defeat USA basketball.

over to the Winter Olympics then both men and womens hockey should be dropped? Right? It not played in a large amount of countries.

And women's hockey has no competition...US or Canada win it all and no other country appears to be gaining on them.

What if the NHL decides not to send the players in 2014 or beyond. I believe they'll send players in 2014 but after that I'm not sure...dump the sport from the Olympics...yes/no. The best won't be there. It wasn't until '98 that the best appearesd...all those Russian Olympic Gold should have asterisks beside them.

lukin2006 wrote:

PJ_Soul wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

For the longest time Olympics didn't have the best in sport...it wasn't till the mid 90's or something like that till paid professionals were allowed. Basebali is a sport that should be in the Olympics...fail to see why popularity should have anything to do with it, most of those other sports no one gives a damn about till the Olympics. At least baseball was somewhat competitive. Unless it's a fluke no one will defeat USA basketball.

I dunno... I just recall that that is the reasoning. The event takes a high-maintenence dedicated venue, and interest wasn't high enough to justify that, so they ditched it. I guess it's a pretty limited sport internationally too. It's big in north america and japan and Cuba and a few other countries, but there is zero interest in much of the world - less than basketball. Many countries wouldn't have a baseball diamond anywhere, much less a national team.

Seems if that's the IOC reasoning then it seems lame. Heck I read that the swimming venue cost 480 million, they could have built a baseball diamond for far less.

True, but interest in Olympic swimming is massive compared to what it was for baseball, and swimming is a way more international sport. I mean, they're not about to make American football an Olympic sport. Why? Because it's not played in enough countries to justify it being played in an international sporting competition. Same with baseball (to a lesser degree) on top of the lack of viewer interest outside of the US.

Plus, many sports are played in one venue at the swimming pool. Swimming, diving, I think water polo, synchro... you can only use a baseball venue for baseball. And a pool can be used after the Olympics by the locals. It adds to the local infrastructure. But there aren't many places where a baseball diamond would be useful after the Olympics ended if they're not held in a country where baseball isn't played.

I understand the annoyance for baseball fans for sure... but there also seem to be a lot of decent reasons to get rid of it.

According to this quite a few countries play baseball.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... ted_States

I believe 28 countries will be competing in the world baseball classic...so more than enough countries play baseball for it to be in the Olympics. I hope it get reinstated in the future.

lukin2006 wrote:

markymark550 wrote:

While I like baseball and would like to see it back in the Olympics, I can understand it not being included. The universality just isn't there. Only 6 countries have ever medaled and it's basically Cuba, USA, South Korea, and Japan as the major players. I'm betting that the World Baseball Classic will start to be to baseball what the World Cup is to soccer (just on a lesser scale). If the IOC sees the WBC as being popular and relevant, they will probably try to bring baseball back to the games, but by then it won't be as big as winning the WBC.

Only 2 countries have gold medals in woman's hockey, in men's hockey there is really only 6 teams that have a realistic shot at gold...more countries play baseball than people think.

What about basketball...unless its a fluke team USA will win most games. Baseball is far more international than basketball.

The USA has won 13 of 16 gold medals in basketball...let's drop basketball then.

No, it's not about only a few countries having a SHOT. It's about a lack of possible national teams that could even come close to any kind of qualifying level altogether. Hardly any countries could assemble an Olympic baseball team because the sport simply is not played in so many countries. But lots and lots of countries have basketball teams and hockey teams, even though many don't have a a chance against a few nations that dominate. Baseball just isn't international enough for the Olympics they decided.