Not 'all American' anymore
Baseball has international draw; deserves to remain an Olympic sport in 2012
Kirkham, Ben
Issue date: 2/20/06 Section: Editorial/Opinion
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Hockey is tied with baseball for my favorite sport, and every two years I get to watch the best players in the world compete in these two sports during their respective Winter and Summer Olympics - at least until 2010.
Starting in London, the site of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, baseball will no longer be part of the Olympics. Why? Because the International Olympic Committee believes baseball is "too American," therefore, it's not fair to the rest of the countries that compete.
Olympic baseball doesn't use professional athletes, and in 2004 the United States didn't even qualify for the Olympics. On top of that, the last sport to be voted out of the Summer Olympics was polo. Come on now, I'm not sure if there's anywhere on Earth where you'll find a bunch of kids riding around on horses and carrying long mallets for a pickup game of polo.
As much as I love hockey, I love baseball. I mean, I really love baseball. I've been to the last four home openers of the Minnesota Twins - I went to seven professional baseball games last year. I play fantasy baseball, I watch baseball on TV, I went to 10 Eau Claire Express games last summer and I even have a Twins tattoo. OK, maybe I like baseball a little bit more than hockey, but to me, baseball still is America's pastime.
I suppose the IOC could argue that the new World Baseball Classic, starting on March 2, could replace Olympic baseball, but in my eyes it won't.
The WBC is an international tournament for baseball, but it will be mostly professional athletes from Major League Baseball, and not the amateurs that make up Olympic baseball teams. Olympic baseball is still fielded by young, unsigned talent, rather than its basketball and hockey counterparts who use professionals. Cuba and Japan are more likely to medal in the Olympics than the United States, and in the four games baseball was in the Olympics, Cuba won the gold medal in all but the 2000 Olympics.
Today's MLB seems to have as many Cuban, Dominican and Venezuelan players as American players.
I won't be surprised when the United States comes in third or fourth in the WBC.
Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see the United States beat the pants off of everyone playing in the WBC, but I just don't see it happening.
Baseball today is truly a worldwide sport, and the United States no longer dominates it. On any major league roster there is a Ramirez, Sosa, Pujols or Matsui, representing a country other than the United States. Last season the Twins even had a relief pitcher from Australia, Grant Balfour. In any given major league game, of the 10 players on the field (including the batter), there are maybe six or seven Americans playing.
With the increasing popularity of NASCAR and the NFL, baseball is no longer considered the No. 1 sport in America, while it is increasing in popularity in South America and Japan.
The World Series is sometimes criticized for not being a true world event, but I disagree. Last year's playoffs and World Series were full of athletes representing countries from all over the world, and baseball fans from every corner of the globe watched. They might not have rooted for their favorite American team, but they definitely rooted for the players representing their country.
To the IOC I ask this question, "How is this sport dominated by the United States anymore?" Just because "Proud to Be an American" is sung immediately after "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," it doesn't mean all the players are actually American. And if we are to dump a sport for being dominated by a specific country, when do we lose the women's luge event, in which Germany dominated the podium this year? How about snowboarding half pipe? Didn't our men win all three medals in Salt Lake City and gold and bronze this year? What about women's hockey? In the first round, Canada romped Italy 16-1.
In a major sport, that is still comprised of actual amateurs and not professionals, baseball is not an American-dominated sport.
It's unfair to the amateur baseball players in this country, and around the world, to take away the only major sport in international competition that doesn't require a professional contract. It's also unfair to the fans.
Kirkham is a senior creative writing major and a columnist for The Spectator.