USA wins bronze medal
kar...@aol.com
The game breaking rally came for the US in the bottom of the 5th inning. With 2 out and runners at first and third Taylor Teagarden hit a 2 run double to give the USA a 6-4 lead. Jason Donald followed with a 2 run homerun to make the score 8-4. Both teams were held scoreless for the rest of the game. USA starter Brett Anderson went 7 innings and was very strong aside from allowing those 2 early homeruns. He allowed 4 runs on just 4 hits. He walked 3 and struck out 6. Kevin Jepson went the final 2 innings to close out the game. He allowed 2 hits and a walk but no runs.
The USA won the bronze medal. It was their 3rd medal all time in Olympic baseball competition. The last time they played in the Olympics was in 2000 and they won the gold medal in those games in Australia. They did not qualify to play in Athens in 2004. Japan had a very dissapointing Olympic experience going 4-5 overall and failing to win a medal.
South Korea continued to be the surprise of the baseball competition defeating Cuba 3-2 to win the gold medal. Cuba picked up the silver medal in consolation. The Koreans came to the tournament with an outside chance to compete for a bronze medal along with the USA. Cuba and Japan were supposed to be the class of the field. But Korea went undefeated in Beijing beating both Cuba and Japan twice to win their first baseball gold medal. They had previously won only one medal in baseball taking the bronze in Australia in 2000.
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Smith, Brad
igned a pro contract, which would make it an amateur event rather than the equivalent of a series of boring minor league games. Such a rule, we might note, and for better or worse, would favor the U.S.A., where there are a large number of pretty good college players.
Brad
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Steve Bielawski
--- "Smith, Brad" <BSm...@law.capital.edu> wrote:
> Did I read that baseball is being dropped after this Olympics?
Yes, it is. So is softball, for the women.
> Unfortunately, it really should be. Leaving aside scheduling, need
> for stadium, etc., baseball simply cannot make it as an Olympic
> sport, because all of the world's best players are right in the
> middle of their season at Olympic time, and a two-week break would
> simply be unacceptable (and would require either reducing the number
> of games, doing away with most in-season days off, or increasing
> dramatically the number of double headers). The best Americans
> weren't there, the best Japanese, the best Dominicans and Venezuelans
> and Australians and Koreans and - well, the best of every country
> where baseball has any real popularity as a sport.
The Dominicans and the Venezuelans didn't even make it to the Olympics,
and neither did the Puerto Ricans (who do field their own athltes, even
though they are a U.S. commonwealth and therefore are eligible for the
U.S. team). Mexico also failed to make it to the final eight. It
seems as though those four didn't make it out of the qualification
round into the actual Olympic tournament play. Mind you, they were in
the Americas bracket, where they had some tough competition. In the
Asian bracket, Chinese Taipei (a.k.a. Taiwan, a.k.a. Formosa, a.k.a.
Nationalist China) and the People's Republic of China made it out of
the Asian bracket, as did South Korea and Japan. The Netherlands were
the only team to make it out of the European bracket, and the rules
required that one Eurpoean team qualify. The United States, Canada,
and Cuba all made it out of the Americas bracket into the final eight.
Here's what I love. The qualifying tournaments which produced the
eight finalists were held in 2006. They didn't necessarily feature the
same players who made the teams that actually went to the Olympics.
That's dumb, in my opinion.
Cuba sent its best baseball players, or at least, the best that they
could trust outside of the country. (Cuba is known to not send some
pl;ayers because of fears of possible defections.) That gives them a
huge advantage.
> What is the point of watching aging minor leaguers such as Taylor
> Teagarden and Jason Donald, or of pitting them against unknowns
> from countries where baseball is a minor sport?
It was pretty easy to guess which four countries would get to the
finals. Cuba, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea were the overwhelming
favourites for the finals. And sure enough, they beat Chinese Taipei,
China, the Netherlnds, and Canada for the medal round. It wasn't even
very close.
> The one possible alternative I can see would be to limit the
> Olympics to players who have never signed a pro contract, which
> would make it an amateur event rather than the equivalent of a
> series of boring minor league games. Such a rule, we might note,
> and for better or worse, would favor the U.S.A., where there are a
> large number of pretty good college players.
Actually, it favours Cuba, where all baseball players are technically
amateurs. You and I know that they are actually professionals, being
paid to play baseball, but somehow, Cuba gets away with calling them
amateurs. (It's an old trick. Back before corporate ownership, cities
ran their own teams, and they would hire some people as firemen but let
them spend their summers playing baseball. Cities did need more
firemen in the winter, back when warmth was provided by fire, so it met
a civic need, but paying them as firemen when they were really baseball
players in the summer was dishonest, at least.)
I won't miss Olympic baseball too much. The World Baseball Tournament
will be back in the spring, and it will be a better guage of the talent
out there, as MLB players will be participating. (Some Venezuelans
have already announced that they won't participate because they don't
like the way that the program is being run down there. That is their
choice, but it does diminish the tournament.)