Olympic fever

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What was up with the English guy previously who was waving his opponents in and taunting them as he crossed the finish line?

[samir]

Messi FTW!

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I was cheering for Nigeria but Messi displayed some pretty intense skills the second half.

[<<<<<]

Usain is the truth.

WOW.

Usainamonster

[chrisfoll577]

The Gold Medal Men's Basketball Final is a real barn-burner.

[Gilly]

Here's a good piece on the removal of baseball from the Olympics. 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/12/no-use-crying-over-olympic-baseballs-end/

I think I agree with the author that it's no big deal.  The Olympics were never very important to baseball, the best players (MLB) never played, and the stupid setup sometimes excludes countries like Japan and Mexico where baseball is big.  I have no doubt that baseball was probably seen (in defiance of the actual facts of where it is played) as too American by the Europe-heavy IOC, but who cares?  No one gave a shit about Olympic baseball until it was removed.

I think it's a big deal because baseball has really grown as a world game. Only the WBC and Olympics are able to showcase the Cuban players who are superstars. Tommy Lasorda, the most vocal man for Olympic baseball, said that every team should give one player to the Olympics and play without them for 2 weeks. I don't know if that would work, maybe they could protect a couple players. I think it would be a better idea to end the season later in Olympic years, not play the all-star game and take a two week break for the Olympics. Every pitcher would be able to stay on schedule since a team only plays 9 games at most so with a 5-6 man staff they'd be able to get regular work- probably less since the bullpens will be all-star pitchers as well. It wouldn't be that hard to do.

[yesno]

But I think part of the reason that baseball was removed from the Olympics is just that MLB was unwilling to make any moves whatsoever towards letting MLB players participate.

The blame for the sport being removed lays as much on MLB as the IOC.

That said, (apart from relays) team sports are a kind of a tricky fit in the Olympics.  But it's crazy that handball makes the cut and not baseball or rugby.

[Gilly]

Yeah, team sports are tough because of all the money involved. If the MLB agreed to something I was describing they'd be losing a huge cash cow every four years in the all-star game. The thing that sucks about the World Baseball Classic is that the MLB is basically trying to set up their own Olympic games and make all the profit of it. That isn't right and I'm sure that made the decision to cut baseball a little easier for the IOC. Bud Selig is a slime bag.