urodacus explained it above. There’s no mystery to it. The best baseball players in the world don’t play in the Olympics. Get the MLB players involved, and it’ll be back in the Olympics.
[quote=“urodacus”][quote=“archylgp”]
It seems like the game requires too much skill.[/quote]
Oh dearie, dearie me.
So, you like baseball and that’s all you’re good at? Baseball was withdrawn partly because the pro teams in America refused to allow their players to take part, be they US citizens who would have played for the USA team, or foreign stars like Ichiro. And so baseball was pulled, not because of a lack of international footprint (plenty of low participation games like that in the Olympics still, like handball and curling) but because the Olympics interferes with the season of professional baseball in the USA.
Blame the game in the States for the demise of Olympic baseball.[/quote]
sorry, I have a hard time buying that.
At one time Olympics was all about not letting pros in (and it wasn’t very long ago). If you turned pro and you compete and were discovered, it’s a huge scandal. Now all the pros has to compete or IOC will cancel your event? I don’t think the US is to blame for it. US might not have sent MLB players for the last couple Olympics, but they sent AAA MiLB players who are also pro. Would I like to see MLB players playing in the summer Olympics? Yes.
But I understand why they don’t, they are half way through the MLB season. And baseball doesn’t work like that. You can’t take a bunch of stars throw them on a team at the last minute and expect them to just be awesome. I’d rather have a bunch of MiLB players who gets to train for a while like the basketball dream teams and compete.
And for the banter, baseball is much harder than rounders… if you don’t wear protective gear, you end up like me with an orbital fracture and sent to the hospital blind in one eye.
But Association Football has the under 23 rule, meaning the majority of the world’s best footballers are absent from the Olympics. And boxing is amateur.
Edit: As an aside, my girlfriend asked me why the opening Ceremony was in English and French. Why not Mandarin, Hindi or Spanish? 
exactly, and that’s why I have a hard time buying that the reason why baseball is out is because MLB won’t let the best players participate. IOC is pretty hypocritical on that one. There are actually still plenty of Olympic sports where it’s mostly amateurs competing. And it wasn’t like the US and the other countries are sending all amateurs. An AAA all star team pretty much can be an MLB team (and will have a much better record than the Mariners).
[quote=“hansioux”][quote=“urodacus”][quote=“archylgp”]
It seems like the game requires too much skill.[/quote]
Oh dearie, dearie me.
So, you like baseball and that’s all you’re good at? Baseball was withdrawn partly because the pro teams in America refused to allow their players to take part, be they US citizens who would have played for the USA team, or foreign stars like Ichiro. And so baseball was pulled, not because of a lack of international footprint (plenty of low participation games like that in the Olympics still, like handball and curling) but because the Olympics interferes with the season of professional baseball in the USA.
Blame the game in the States for the demise of Olympic baseball.[/quote]
sorry, I have a hard time buying that.
At one time Olympics was all about not letting pros in (and it wasn’t very long ago). If you turned pro and you compete and were discovered, it’s a huge scandal. Now all the pros has to compete or IOC will cancel your event? I don’t think the US is to blame for it. US might not have sent MLB players for the last couple Olympics, but they sent AAA MiLB players who are also pro. Would I like to see MLB players playing in the summer Olympics? Yes.
But I understand why they don’t, they are half way through the MLB season. And baseball doesn’t work like that. You can’t take a bunch of stars throw them on a team at the last minute and expect them to just be awesome. I’d rather have a bunch of MiLB players who gets to train for a while like the basketball dream teams and compete.
And for the banter, baseball is much harder than rounders… if you don’t wear protective gear, you end up like me with an orbital fracture and sent to the hospital blind in one eye.[/quote]
[quote=“cfimages”]
Read mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd … p&c_id=mlb
If that really is the case, why is softball cancelled along with baseball? Why not cancel baseball and bring in men’s softball? I mean there is no “Softball MLB” prohibiting its players from participating in the Olympics.
It’s the stadiums and the lack of desire to build them.
I love it when Euros take shots at American masculinity. :roflmao: Ohhhhh the irony![/quote]
Why?
Does it make you all gooey inside?
North American sports are the biggest excuse for homophobic men to get all feminine without feeling guilty. And they get to sell all sorts of products to armchair homophobes during the obligatory commercial breaks.
Madison Avenue is feeling no pain…
The official language of the IOC is French. Note that French is used BEFORE the english announcements, even in England.
I love it when Euros take shots at American masculinity. :roflmao: Ohhhhh the irony![/quote]
Why?
Does it make you all gooey inside?
North American sports are the biggest excuse for homophobic men to get all feminine without feeling guilty. And they get to sell all sorts of products to armchair homophobes during the obligatory commercial breaks.
Madison Avenue is feeling no pain…[/quote]
I can’t believe you said that about beach volleyball!
The official language of the IOC is French. Note that French is used BEFORE the english announcements, even in England.[/quote]
the official language of the Olympics should be Greek.
[quote=“urodacus”][quote=“archylgp”]
It seems like the game requires too much skill.[/quote]
Oh dearie, dearie me.
So, you like baseball and that’s all you’re good at? Baseball was withdrawn partly because the pro teams in America refused to allow their players to take part, be they US citizens who would have played for the USA team, or foreign stars like Ichiro. And so baseball was pulled, not because of a lack of international footprint (plenty of low participation games like that in the Olympics still, like handball and curling) but because the Olympics interferes with the season of professional baseball in the USA.
Blame the game in the States for the demise of Olympic baseball.[/quote]
Than make it a winter Olympics sport :roflmao:
The official language of the IOC is French. Note that French is used BEFORE the english announcements, even in England.[/quote]
It’s a colonial thing … and because the President of the IOC is Belgian … who speaks, coincidentally, French … and Dutch, but we can’t possibly expect people to learn Dutch … :ohreally:
[quote=“hansioux”]
The official language of the IOC is French. Note that French is used BEFORE the english announcements, even in England.[/quote]
the official language of the Olympics should be Greek.[/quote]
No, there is the Olympics and there is the modern Olympics.
[quote=“divea”][quote=“hansioux”]
the official language of the Olympics should be Greek.[/quote]
No, there is the Olympics and there is the modern Olympics.[/quote]
and then there’s the post-modern Olympics where participating athletes needs to be able shown IOC the money.
I read one one newspaper site they would get the Gold Medal for being the best whingers, complaining and blaming other countries teams did not help them :loco: :loco: and that the sneaky Kazak chap snuck off to get himself a gold medal. 
I am glad Vinny sncuk away for the Gold to end his career, even if he did pop a few pills way back when.
I read one one newspaper site they would get the Gold Medal for being the best whingers, complaining and blaming other countries teams did not help them :loco: :loco: and that the sneaky Kazak chap snuck off to get himself a gold medal.
I am glad Vinny sncuk away for the Gold to end his career, even if he did pop a few pills way back when.[/quote]
… and now he’s under suspicion (rumors) of having bought the gold medal … as he apparently did once before and which they are still investigating …