There has been some debate on here over the last two weeks about what should/should not be an Olympic sport. I really liked what the IOC Chairman had to say about his favorite moment of the games. To him, his favorite moment thus far was watching Roger Federer win Gold in Doubles Tennis. He reminded Bob Costas that in both professional and non-professional ranks the Olympics are seen as the pennultimate venue on which to compete. This, to him, was summed up when Roger who is areguably one of the best Tennis players of all time having won every professional competition longed for and cried when he finally won an Olympic Gold Medal. The IOC is in a very tough position to tell someone that competes in some event that they are/are not worthy of competeing for Olympic Gold. What we see as a bar-room or rec room hobby to some is their passion. While on the flipside, they could care less about something that we are passionate about.

softball and baseball should be in. hands down.

Agreed

His comments about that were pretty interesting. He said that baseball basically killed itself with its failure to address the doping issues that have been prevalent since the Athens games. The Mitchell Report really hurt baseball's international image. Softball was an unintended consequence of this. Many countries (and he admitted wrongfully) viewed softball as the female equivalent of baseball. To make it worse, many countries use the same governing body for both baseball and softball. Although he couldn't come out and say it, softball has a good chance of being back in 2016. Japans win coupled with better education about the differences between the two sports will help it's international awareness. Baseball is (edit to chance actually to also) also hurt by the fact that our Pros can't represent their countries at the games. Unfortunately this goes against the goals of the games to have the best athletes from around the world representing their home countries.

[This message has been edited by Kenneth_2003 (edited 8/24/2008 4:08p).]

i always wondered why baseball couldn't do the same thing as the nhl, and stop the season for a few weeks.. or play a shortened season.. and let the pros play the game...

It would make for a really cool All-Star game. Winner goes to the Olympics!

Darts, Curling, Bowling and Foosball... Now we're talking...

I think the doping aspect is overplayed. I think the MLB not bending to their will is the far and away main driver.

ha ha...the olympic track athletes are doped just as much or more than Baseball.

Problem with using MLB players is it will jack up pitching rotations, which wouldn't be fair to some teams (especially since sometimes the Olympics will be in the heart of the pennant race in mid Sept). Extending the season 2.5 weeks could really cause some weather issues at the start and end of the season as well (and shortening the season will cause statistic issues, which you know will be an issue for the mlb purists).

I'd love to see it though.

You gotta be nuts if you think a USA based professional league would change their ways to accomodate the Olympics. MLB will always bury their head in the sand if given the opportunity. Far too much is impacted when the league schedule changes.

I don't believe the IOC guy on much of anything. The IOC is an incredibly political organization from top to bottom. Their decisions are not rational. Why is rhythmic gymnastics, completely dominated by Eastern Europe in the Olympics when baseball is being killed? Baseball is a sport of the Americas and Asia.

And does the IOC acknowledge how much corruption exists in judging of the combat sports like boxing, wrestling, and tae kwan do?

Going back to the OP, baseball and softball were the only topics discussed during the portion of the interview that aired while I was watching. The IOC Chairman candidly answered every question he was asked. IF Bob Costas didn't ask about a topic (boxing, judging scandals, etc.) it wasn't discussed.

Some other topics were discussed in earlier segments, but NBC split the interview and aired portions of it at different times. I didn't get to see those. If anyone did (or can find a link to them) please share.

quote:

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candidly answered

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You believe that?

Well.............you can candidly lie.