[abailey3313]

Originally Posted by remangiii

I'm inclined to boycott the Olympics, but at the same time I don't really care.

My sentiments exactly.

The Olympics have never done anything for me. Even the "major" sports like basketball and baseball have never really drawn me in, and I'm not necessarily sure why. I just don't care -- never have and probably never will.

[MrWorkrate]

Originally Posted by thomasthomas

My, how the times have changed. Baseball was cancelled at the Olympics because it didn't attract enough professional players. It wasn't that long ago that pros weren't allowed to compete in any Olympics event!

But I can understand, baseball isn't really a global sport, like others have said. But I do believe it's a joke that PING PONG is an Olympic event and baseball isn't!

Why not add snooker or 9-ball or something like that to the Olympics?

I agree on the "professional" part. Just kind of funny.

The reason table tennis holds over baseball is more of a convienence thing. Take an indoor location and set up a table, and you're set for table tennis.

Baseball needs a field created for it, and since it's the Olympics, it has to be a field that's immaculate. Most foreign countries don't have "olympic quality" baseball fields, so renovations have to be done to an existing field, or in some cases, fields have to be completely created from scratch.

It's just a pain in the butt to have to go through for a sport that isn't embraced by a large percentage of the world. It's only been an "official" olympic sport for 4 olympic games. They tried, it failed.

[cooper_gd]

Originally Posted by abailey3313

My sentiments exactly.

The Olympics have never done anything for me. Even the "major" sports like basketball and baseball have never really drawn me in, and I'm not necessarily sure why. I just don't care -- never have and probably never will.

I've not watched an event since childhood.

[Mycroft]

Won't it be easier now to get that Baseball World Cup that MLB was considering? Am I the only person to think their might be a slight connection?

Meanwhile, the Olympics have certainly gone down in my opinion constantly starting with '92

[Y0DA55]

Originally Posted by edrooney

Personally, I think any sport where the Olympics isn't considered to be the ultimate achievement (e.g. soccer, tennis) should be axed. It denigrates the Olympics to see World Champions casually show up and look mildly pleased when they win a gold medal.

I'm SO with you on this. I personally don't watch some sports because of this. Granted, I think a lot of people would be really pissed if soccer was taken out of the olympics, but it really isn't the pinnacle of the sport.

I don't care who wins gold in tennis. It's just another tournament, and any player could win that, not necessarily the best.

At least from a US perspective, baseketball could be included in that as well. Although, I think other countries would disagree.

I much prefer watching things that matter, ie, swimming, figure skating, track and field, or gymnastics.

[kingcharlesxii]

It's a shame. I'll always remember Ben Sheets pitching well to help the US team win the gold.

I seriously doubt I'll be watching any of the Olympics starting in 2012 then.

[SanDiegoPadres19]

Right there with your King Charles. IOC president Jacques Rogge has been trying to get rid of baseball and softball since 2002 and he failed, so he made up this little vote so people could vote agaisnt it without fear of retribution.

The fact that TABLE TENNIS and HANDBALL are still olmypic sports is a joke.

As for who cares about Softball, a lot of people. A LOT. It is starting to be played all over the world and was gaining a lot of popularity around here. Yes, we dominated, but by 2012, it is quite possible other countires could catch up.

I hope this decision results in Rogge's eventual removal, and I do hope they list the balloting and who voted the sports out. Make them stand up to their decision. It sounds like there is a lot of internal bickering going on as it is.

[Gastric ReFlux]

Table tennis is great.

Now if they still got synchronized swimming, I'm complaining.

[SanDiegoPadres19]

They do, but it counts as aquatics and they will never get rid of those pools, and you cannot be serious about Table Tennis.

From my understanding and reading up on this. And this was mentioned before, it is because London lacks a solid field for both softball and baseball and this is money they will save in not building them.

[Long_Long_Name]

What's wrong with handball?

[SanDiegoPadres19]

Nothing agaisnt the sport, but who the hell cares about Handball~!!

My point is, the fact that two sports that no country gives a **** about will be Olympic sports over two great sports.

[Long_Long_Name]

The Olympic Games are not about popularity of the sport. Honestly, how often do you watch shot put outside the Olympic Games?

[SanDiegoPadres19]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

The Olympic Games are not about popularity of the sport. Honestly, how often do you watch shot put outside the Olympic Games?

Are you kidding me. One main reason these sports got the axe was because there just isn't enough popularity world wide[according to the IOC members that voted].

Holy cow dude, EVERYTHING in the Olympics is about popularity. Do you think swimming and gymnastics are popular in the Olympics? Sure they are, so they are put on during primetime for the world to watch... Curling or Handball, you'll never see those on TV. Baseball and softball...yeah, those are on TV.

[randomlefty10]

Actually I saw a lot more table tennis and badminton and the like events on TV than the baseball games.

But maybe that's because I turned the TV to another channel if they were showing baseball because it was terrible to watch.

And it's an extreme cost cutting measure. It is not like they went "Gee, we need to cut two sports, which two should it be?" It's "Look how much money it costs to have baseball/softball, and it doesn't draw a huge audience." The IOC was being smart for a chance.

[enuttage]

So let me get this straight.

A sport that 1/5 of the 10 most populous nations in the world consider a major professional sport is now booted from the Olympics.

Sound about right?

On top of that, Mexico is the world's 11th most populous country, and is quite a large collective fan of the beisbol.

So...3 of the 11 most populous countries in the world consider it a major sport. Seems pretty worthy to me.

Just a different perpective...

-E

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by enuttage

So...3 of the 11 most populous countries in the world consider it a major sport. Seems pretty worthy to me.

That, and 10 of the 190 others.

[enuttage]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

That, and 10 of the 190 others.

So just the 3 make up 8-9% of the world's population. What do those other 10 make up?

What's the percentage of the world that plays squash competitively?

-E

[jazzrack]

ballroom dancing is an olympic sport

enough said.

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by enuttage

So just the 3 make up 8-9% of the world's population. What do those other 10 make up?

What's the percentage of the world that plays squash competitively?

-E

If you want to compare that way, we should have all of China's and India's sports at the Olympics, since they're 20% on their own.

I think a sport at the Olympics should have global appeal, or at least a tradition that is not proper to one country.

[SanDiegoPadres19]

Well in that case, lets ditch Table Tennis. China has ruled in ping-pong so lets ditch it.

http://tabletennis.about.com/od/tour...bl_olympic.htm

It just doesn't make sense. They would rather have nothing then softball and baseball. What in the world would the harm be in having those sports. I could somewhat understand if they had sports replacing them, but they don't.

Something is always better than nothing.