No US baseball team at Olympics

[Mordeth]

That's right, the US baseball team just got beaten and won't be able to participate in the upcoming Olympic Games. And there's me pointing and laughing :)

[Ichor]

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19095

[Sephiroth]

blurnball is much better

just out of pure curiousity, who the hell beat us

[Little Faith]

Where's Archvile46 when you need him?

[fodders]

Falling to Mexico 2-1

[Fletcher`]

That's Blernsball.

Seph fails it. :P
Baseball " ".

[insertwackynamehere]

Where's Kid Airbag?

[Fredrik]

insertwackynamehere said:

Where's Kid Airbag?

His absence might be a bad sign...

[DooMBoy]

He'll show up. Just give him time :P

[Sharessa]

There's all crying in baseball.

[Ultraviolet]

the_Danarchist said:

There's all crying in baseball.

What?

Ooh, <3 the Apop sig-line!

[Sharessa]

Ultraviolet said:

What?

Ooh, <3 the Apop sig-line!

Heh yeah. That song has been in my head and on my playlist for the last couple weeks. I just love that line too.

EDIT: Man, how do you like that. I had that 'Munge' sig for like 2 months and no one commented on it. I've had this sig for about 5 minutes and bam, there we are. :P

[Job]

If all those high-priced baseball athlete-thingies can't do it...well, then they fail it. I guess money can't buy everything.

[Ultraviolet]

the_Danarchist said:

There's all crying in baseball.

You never answered my "What?"

[Hobo]

Baseball was made for people in tight clothing to hit a ball with a long wooden object, that just comes off as bizarre to me.

[Job]

SlowMotionHobo said:

Baseball was made for people in tight clothing to hit a ball with a long wooden object, that just comes off as bizarre to me.

Any sport looks strange if you look at it by face-value.

[Gokuma]

[emote]laughs at our pathetic steroid juiced "athletes"[/emote]

What was the baseball type game on Upright Citizen's Brigade? Was that blurnsball? Or was blurnsball from Futurama?

[pritch]

Thread pruned. If you don't care about something don't waste time by replying to it.

This is quite amusing. But were the best major league players actually called up to play for the USA?

[Lüt]

pritch said:

Thread pruned. If you don't care about something don't waste time by replying to it.

Well there goes 90% of the thread.

[Sharessa]

Ultraviolet said:

You never answered my "What?"

Don't worry. It was a stupid, stupid joke.

[Grimm]

Ha. American pro athletes fail it.

[fodders]

pritch said:

Thread pruned. If you don't care about something don't waste time by replying to it.

This is quite amusing. But were the best major league players actually called up to play for the USA?

I assume it's amateurs only? Olympics tends to be non professional players.

[IMJack]

fodders said:

I assume it's amateurs only? Olympics tends to be non professional players.

The U.S. basketball team has a few gold medals that say otherwise.

[Sharessa]

Technicaly, the Harlem Globetrotters aren't a professional team, but they seem to trounce everyone. I dunno, maybe thats part of the act.

[Kid Airbag]

Dammit, stop making baseball threads when I'm not around.

Okay, let's set a few things straight here.

First of all, in baseball, unlike basketball, the United States does NOT permit any athlete who was on a Major League roster as of August 31 to participate in Olympic events, such as these qualification tournaments. The entire U.S. team was either washed up former players or young stars, none of which are making under $300,000 at this point.

I was looking forward to these games, particularly because two Pirates prospects had made the Olympic team. Unfortunately, the team that had absolutely dominated the qualification tournament isn't allowed to participate in Athens because of one fluke game in which Mexico won with a home run that cleared the fence by two feet. Not to take anything away from Mexico, or even any of the other teams playing in the tournament, but the USA clearly had a superior team, despite not using Major League players.

For proof, the team played four games and gave up a grand total of two runs in 36 innings while scoring 21. All three of USA's wins were shutouts, and the numbers most likely would have been even more gaudy had their game against Brazil not been rained out (Future Bucco John VanBenschoten was slated to pitch that game too, disappointing). Team USA also did not commit a single error throughout the entire tournament.

In addition, the entire qualification system is a farce the way it is. Somehow, Europe is allowed three teams, host Greece, along with the two teams who reach the final of the European qualifier. So we now have such powerhouses as Italy and The Netherlands participating in the 2004 Summer Olympics instead of the defending gold medalist, which clearly deserved a spot given its play in the qualifying tournament. This sort of defeats the whole purpose of the Olympics, which is supposed to be a showcase of the world's best.


Edit: This happened to be my 6969th post. A very satisfying way to achieve such a holy number =)