Baseball gets the ax - May 14

by Chris Holland

The Olympic Games are a celebration of the best athletes in the world playing their respective sports for not only themselves but for their countries as well. In the 2008 Olympics, there will be twenty eight sports represented from all over the world. In 2012, there will only be twenty six sports represented.
Something most people don’t know, even though it happened three years ago, is that 2008 will be the final Olympic Games where baseball and softball are included in the foreseeable future. Back in the summer of 2005, the Olympic committee, by way of secret ballot, voted baseball and softball out of the Olympics.
Now, with the exclusion of baseball and softball in the Olympics, the big time dreams of many amateur athletes have been destroyed. Their hopes of playing an Olympic sport for their country are ruined.
The Olympic committee decided to take out a two big time sports that are played all over the world, yet, for the winter games, they leave in sports such as curling, skeleton, and bobsledding that are always dominated by teams like Canada and Switzerland.
Just about every country in the world plays baseball. If they are going to remove a sport from the Olympics, it should be a sport that is not so widely popular and played by so many people, both children and adults, all over the world.
Some of the sports proposed to take their place by the head of the Olympic committee are golf, rugby, and karate. These aren’t sports that should be included in the Olympics, especially not in the place of baseball and softball. Baseball is our pastime and should be allowed to remain in the Olympics along with softball.