Quote:
Originally Posted by ohead
don't get me wrong, I think baseball looks like great fun and respect the athletes, I just don't believe your stats about it being so huge everywhere and of course you think it should be allowed when the US can bring it home every time.
First, the U.S. cannot bring it home every time and that has nothing to do with whether I think it belongs in the Olympics. The U.S. is competitive but is hardly run-away favorites to win gold.
Cuba is definitely the favorite. Pretty much everyone agrees on that.
The U.S. is probably considered 2nd best in the field but Japan is a reasonably close 3rd.
Korea and Canada aren't likely to do much damage but in a high-variance sport like baseball in a single-elimination tournament anything is possible if you get a good pitcher on the right night.
You can not believe me all you like. Which countries that I listed are you not believing me on? I worked in baseball for several years so can answer a lot of Q's you might have. I have known players from each of those countries.
You must know really little about baseball to think it's only popular in the U.S. and Japan. It's probably MORE popular in the Domincan Republic than it is in the U.S. For young males in the D.R. playing baseball is pretty much all a lot of them do. For such a small nation they have an absolutely incredible number of players in the major leagues.
If you don't know that there is lots of baseball in the DR or Mexico or Venezuela then that just shows you don't know much about the sport (which I'm sure you admit...no biggie).
Baseball held their first ever World Baseball Classic a couple of years ago. Baseball's answer to the World Cup in soccer essentially.
Earlier this year they announced the 16 team field for the next World Baseball Classic in March 2009. They are looking at expanding it to 24 countries for 2013.
FWIW - I don't blame you for not liking baseball if you've only seen it via the Olympics coverage.
Olympics baseball is exponentially more boring than the professional variety in the U.S. or pretty much any other professional league or the World Baseball Classic. It's not the best way to showcase the game to the world unfortunately.
Quote:
Next year's field will again feature defending title winner Japan, runner-up Cuba, the U.S., Dominican Republic, Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela -- all teams that qualified for the second round last time and thus received automatic berths for '09.
It was announced on Tuesday that Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Italy, Netherlands, Panama, and South Africa were sent invitations.
"There has been significant improvement in the level of play internationally and indeed, Major League ranks include even more players from across the world," said Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the Players' Association. "The 16 teams selected best represent the breadth of quality play around the globe, which meets a key tournament objective, showing the world how far baseball has come internationally. If you liked the tournament last time around, wait 'til you see her this time."
Last edited by MicroBob; 08-12-2008 at 07:51 AM.
