No irony there; I don't claim to be an encyclopedia.

And besides, I did not "condemn" wiki - I pointed out the truth about wikipedia; a truth that they also publish on their site.

What "other poster" did I condemn?

Didn't belong anyway
 

Softball isn't a global sport it's a niche sport. It required building venues for the Olympics that aren't used much since. Was a good decision to get rid of it.

As far as "throwing" the final game is a dumb notion. Japan-USA went long innings their first game before USA pounced during special rules time.

Girls fastpitch won't be affected by this at all, the girls will still go for their Title IX scholarships and move along into their careers like 99.9 percent of them do. The only casualty stateside might be the women's pro league, which is a casualty 24/7 anyway.

Ain't that the truth! Hell, someone claimed that Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island smoked weed!:eek:

I never believe what's writen on Wikipedia! It's a free and open encyclopedia. Everybody can write on it what he wants. I believe that if you look very good there might be written that Elvis is still alive, Hitler never invaded France and the Netherlands will win Olympic Softball in 2012 (London)...:rolleyes:

If you're giving facts, please don't use Wik-liar-pedia as your source...
Who believes Bild Zeitung or the Sun Newspaper? Only the Wik-users!

It comes from the
Therefore it can happen in the major ISF Tournaments and it is not an olympic thing.

Raoul

After all is said and done, Wikipedia was correct in saying they use the Page Playoff system.

Some of the extra information in there is someones opinion but the information concerning what "type" of system was correct.

How do you classify a sport which is played on every inhabited continent other than global? And the thought of venues becoming useless is absurd.

Ya think! :cool:

Unless it is returned to Olympic status, it will affect youth softball. What goes up, must come down. Youth softball boomed after the game was added to the Olympic line up. It is only natural that the further we become removed from the Olympics, participation will decline. Unfortunately, this isn't like baseball of old where a majority of boys were expected to select some sort of sport in which to participate and the obvious summer sport was baseball.

I believe softball will retain some of the numbers in the youth game. They will go down, but not to the pre-Olympic level.

Actually, it may strengthen the NPF which needs all the help it can get.

And going with this, I think there's a good chance that the participation levels in the youth game may hold steady.

When all was said, no one was at all concerned with what the CALLED the goofy format.

Only that it results in the losing team becoming the champion, and I don't know how you would describe a team with a head-to-head record of 1-2 against their opponent other than "losing team." It is a losing record, yet they are the "champion."

Even leaving out the pool game, you have two teams that have faced each other twice and each have 1 win.

I'm not disputing the gold medal going to Japan - everyone knew the format going in. But to claim it is similar to a double elimination format is wrong, and either the author is a fool or is pushing an agenda. If the medal round was double elimination, they would have played one more game for the championship.

As to youth participation, youth participation in most Olympic sports increases after the Olympic games... from gymnastics to swimming to communist kickball... softball is no different. How long-lasting the spike in participation is is the question.

It is good publicity for the sport and to encourage participation in the sport. Without that publicity, either something else will have to generate the interest, or participation will suffer. It is unlikely any other international competition will have the impact the Olympics does.

They already run a Jr. World Cup. It looks like they are going to take it down just a peg to a younger level. This will be a good thing, and hopefully it grows strong before 2012.

Don't know if ASA will attempt to negotiate non-conflicting dates with the JO program. The again, this really isn't for the USA, is it?

No, probably not. I doubt that you're going to get the average 16-A travel team, fresh off coming back from Nationals to fork up enough dough to take an international softball adventure to somewhere in Europe.

Interesting, Mike.
Now, sine we have no ISF (through ASA) for 16&U, how do you think the choices will be made for umpires?

They would use ISF umpires. Probably more local or each team bring one with them.

And if this is going to be a World Cup event, I would expect the NGB to provide some help with this, but not to a standard 16U team. I would like to think they would make an all-star selection from the previous year's 16U & 14U USA/ASA Nationals to those girls who will be age eligible the following season.

This would be a financial undertaking for ASA, but who knows. This WOULD be a lot easier if there was still money coming in from the IOC.

But, who knows. Of course, you would have every psycho parent who thinks their daughter should be included filing lawsuits out the *** to stop ASA from sending the team they want unless it included THEIR little girl :mad: .