Thursday, July 17, 2008

Cuba and Castro right about International Olympic Baseball

The Cuban Olympic Committee, Baseball Federation of Cuba and Fidel Castro are quite right about International Olympic Baseball and the ridding of it at the Games by 2012, though I do not believe it truly is because the United States has been shut out in the medals for two Olympics, a bronze in Atlanta and a gold in Sydney, while Cuba has taken a record three golds and a silver in 2000, I do believe that it likely has something to do with the professional Major League Baseball itself.

Their help in eliminating Baseball from the Olympics, and thus real International play, will actually hurt the game, not just financially, but as well as popularity. A game in which its masters, these again being Major League Baseball, American League, National League, Major League Baseball Players Association and its Commissioner and Executive Director, actually killed the amateur Baseball World Cup by literally neutering the International Baseball Federation, in favour of their own professional World Baseball Classic, one can not imagine just how the Olympics came to its conclusion of ending its own relationship with the sport. As basketball, hockey and other team sports gain prestige from their inclusion within, baseball will find the world's cold shoulder from being without, something America does not really need right now, in the exact times we live in.

A pal of mine, Chris Cubitt, is right in saying that he believes team sports do not belong in the Olympics anymore, as the day of them being a part of an individual athlete's showcase are gone. But, if the International Olympic Committee are not following this strategy to a tee, systematically getting rid of all team sports on the world stage, then we have to know that getting rid of America's favourite sport in athletics can only hurt America's favourite agenda in politics, that being democracy. Which is why I believe Cuba and Castro are on the right track, in saying baseball should remain, or all others should go as well, bringing the archetypal Olympiad games right back to ancient Greek city of Athens where it belongs.