Maybe someday we'll get baseball again?

[NavyCrimson]

here's a good article re/ the USA baseball team's effort in trying to acquire talent for the olympics...

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/12/31/184653.shtml

Baseball – Good Medicine?
Michael Arnold Glueck and Robert J. Cihak
Thursday, Jan. 1, 2004
Why a medical column on baseball at year's end? Well, baseball is normally good medicine for Americans. Sports let us vent our spleens, hostilities and frustrations. But wait until 2004. We're going to get the old international fork ball, split finger and screwball!
There's a fine old German word, Schadenfreude, joy in the sufferings and misfortunes of others. Locally, Schadenfreude's relatively tame: a 30 mile backup on the freeway, going in the other guy's direction, for example. But global Schadenfreude – how they love it when America stumbles – is a different affair entirely.

No, I'm not talking about the Middle East, Saddam or Osama. The problem is baseball. We who invented the game, we who gave the world the hissy-fitting manager, the spitball, the infield fly rule ... we won't be playing our game at the 2004 Olympics.

We lost, Nov. 7, in the qualifying tournament. To Mexico. 2-1. Maybe nobody's paying much attention now. But next year in Athens, they'll notice. And we'll notice that they notice. So get ready for a global Bronx cheer.

"We lost a game," said Sandy Alderson, an executive vice president in the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball and the top American official with the team. "I don't think it's a setback for U.S. baseball. I think it's a validation of the internationalization of the game." (AP)

Great. Blame it on globalization.

So what went wrong? Frank Robinson, the team's Hall of Fame manager, opined that "It was a well-pitched game by their pitchers. We were not able to do much until the ninth inning, and it was not enough." (AP)

Once again, a manager demonstrates his keen grasp of the obvious.

So how did it happen? In 2000, a team managed by Tommy Lasorda took the gold at Sydney: a team that included pro stars Ben Sheets and Doug Mientkwiecz. (Professionals are eligible) But where were our professionals when Mexico took the joy away?

Something's majorly wrong when all these megabucks superstars can't give a little back to their country. Of course, they have all kinds of excuses: contracts, injuries, time off from the regular season, agent doesn't like it, wife won't go, hangnails, whatever. But when you're getting $10,000 every time you throw a 6 ounce ball 60 feet feet, or $20,000 every time you – wave a bat at one of those six ounce jobs – OK, the ball is hard and coming at you at 95 mph, but that's not the point – you'd think a little gratitude might be in order.

Not likely. Not in what professional sports have become. Abner Doubleday's no doubt rotating in his grave over our failure, but so are the ancient Greeks, who took athletics very seriously. To them, victory indicated the favor of the gods. To us, victory brings product endorsements. From "Show Us the Glory" to "Show Me the Money" – a long and not entirely graceful way down. And when we talk about "sports immortals," well, so did the Greeks. But they meant it literally.

But enough of this self-pity. What is to be done? Sometime within the next few decades, the United States will host the Games, and our baseball team will automatically participate. Until then, we'll have to earn our spot. So here's what we do.

First, Roger Clemens, who graciously offered to play in 2004, must be kept from aging. The world must have an opportunity to observe and appreciate The Rocket's Red Glare.

Second, bring back Tommy Lasorda! In 2000 the U.S. team managed by the ex-Dodger skipper and Hall-of-Famer Lasorda took the gold at Sydney­with a team, like this year's, comprised mainly of professional castoffs and Major League wannabes.

Third, make Lasorda's job a lot easier. Get Major League Baseball to follow the lead of the National Basketball Association in its willingness to have its stars compete in the Olympics. Baseball balks at the idea because, unlike with basketball, the Olympics interrupts its season. One equitable solution might be for the U.S. Olympic Committee to have the right to tap the services of only one or two willing players from each big league roster. Think of it as an "amateur draft" in reverse.

Fourth, we need to strengthen our baseball programs at all amateur and professional levels. We'll do it the American Way, by importing as many outstanding Latino and Japanese players as we can find!

Finally, we American baseball fans must acclimate to changing global realities. When the ball doesn't bounce our way, we need to console ourselves with an updated adage:

"Wait'll next Olympiad!" In the mean time don't over-medicate on sports and have many Happy Holidays and New Years.

Editors Note: Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., wrote this week's brilliant and humorous column.


* * * * * *
Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., is a multiple-award-winning writer who comments on medical-legal issues. Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.


Contact Drs. Glueck and Cihak by e-mail.

[HighfalutinHorse]

With ONLY an $18.3 mm budget, supporting 20 sports, DON'T count on it. Our budget is LESS THAN Rice, Tulane, TCU, Memphis, Tech (ie: just about everybody...). Best get into rowing and horse jumping.....

[Dooby]

Regardless of budget, Title IX makes it practically impossible to add a men's sport.

[EastStang]

I'd love to add baseball, too. But in reality that means adding softball as well. That means at least 10 scholarships ($250,000) to be divided up. Travel for both teams would have to occur. It means finding land on which to build a baseball field and a softball field or playing off campus somewhere. Title IX will continue to bite us. The school can't afford to give up federal grants or restrict faculty from applying for federal grants which in essence means that we have to keep trying to comply with this well-meaning but short sighted law.

[NavyCrimson]

well said - east stang.

definitely-definitely shortsighted!

i guess i've become a rice 'baseball' supporter since the cws last season!

i really liked the way they strapped it on stanford & the tu short horns!