[EdJW]

I am as much concerned about the secret vote of the IOC to ban softball and baseball from the Olympics as all other posters. But I do not think that petitions to the IOC from individual softball fans will do anything to reinstate softball in 2016, let alone 2012. What we need is a resolution from the US Congress mandating the IOC to hand over the $$$$ for softball for the 2012 and all future olympics to an organization that will commit to promoting international competition at an "olympic" level. Identifying the $$$$ amount would take about 5 minutes of analysis. The big question is who would the IOC be required to pay the $$$$ to run international softball competition. As much as it hurts to say it, I think it is ASA. Why? Because there is no international softball organization that I would trust to administer the big dollars involved. And there is no other USA softball organization that seems ready to take on the duties required to promote international softball.

How to make the $$$$ contribution to international softball happen. One, we need softball champions to get a vote from congress telling all US olympic sponsors that their $$$$ contributions to the olympics should be contingent on the IOC funding big time international softball competition. Two, we need the eyes and ears of the softball community to identifying US olympic sponsors for Olympics that do not include softball. In the potential absence of IOC $$$$ for international softball, we need to demand that US olympic sponsors pony up the $$$$.