Olympic Softball
 

I wonder how long it will take for somebody to suggest the USA team was taking one for the sport's effort to get back into the Olympics? :rolleyes:

It didn't take on post on e-teamz for people to espouse how good the loss was for the sport.

This could have possibly been the last ever softball game in the olympics, does anyone really think that the game would intentionally be thrown just for the sake of possibly getting the sport reinstated? They wanted the game more than ever, just plain got beat. Poor batting, poor game management and maybe a few players that played a few years longer than they should have.

Or, maybe it is just tough to get a 3 game sweep against close competition. The Japanese team was darn good all around. To expect any team, including Team USA, to beat them three straight was a bit much, especially all the hoopla about how big of an upset this was.

The last game went 9 innings and, except for Bustos 3 run homer, would have gone at least 10.

If anything, the Olympic format needs some thought (should the sport be re-instated in 2016).

They should consider a gold medal series to not have a 1 loss team get the silver and a 2 loss team get the gold, especially when the 2 losses by the gold team were from silver team.

I agree there, doesnt seem very fair that in the medal round a team gets to lose, come back and ultimately play for the gold, yet the team that has no loses goes home with a silver after a single loss. You would at least think that the first 2 losers in the medal round would play each other for the bronze, and that the winners would play for the gold and silver.

I wouldn't suggest it, but for less than a nanosecond :rolleyes: the thought did cross my mind when I heard the USA team lost.

Just the opposite happened in 2000. US lost 3 games and then beat undefeated Japan in the gold game. Can't complain too much.

Sure I can... it has nothing to do with who won when and it really has nothing to do with "total losses"; the desire to have a single gold medal game is probably TV driven (even though the softball game did not make prime time) and leads to the result of the team with a 1-2 series record being the champion.

Name another major team sport competition where 2 teams can be 1-2 against each other head-to-head in the tournament and have the team with 1 win be the champion.

Volleyball.

This type of backet is common in olympic sports. Stupid, but common.

I think a standard double elimination of the top 4 teams make a lot more sense. But DE would require 6 or 7 games (and the uncertainty of needing the IF game causes havoc with such things as TV schedules), where as this means 4 games total.

By "name another ... competition" I meant "another besides Olympic"... Of course I knew the other Olypmic team competitions were similar or identical, and it is the same competition (different sport).

NCAA Baseball (and maybe Softball) had a stupid system similar to this a few years ago, again driven by TV's desire for a single championship game. Thankfully, they have gone to a 3 game championship series format, since either the TV execs or the viewing public is confused by the idea of a double elimination championship and the possible "if" game. This despite the fact that all series have "if" games by definition.

Just looked it up in wikipedia. They use the Page Playoff system. Basically used for curling tournaments.

From Wikipedia -
Page playoff

The top four teams advance to the Page playoff. In what's sometimes called the quarter-finals, the first- and second-placed teams and the third- and fourth-placed teams play each other. The winner of the 1 vs. 2 game gets a bye to the final. The loser of the 1 vs. 2 game plays the winner of the 3 vs. 4 game in the semi-final. The winner of the semi-final plays the winner of the 1 vs. 2 game in the final, with the winner of that game winning the competition.

This has the effect of allowing the top two teams to lose a game and still win the tournament, producing a similar effect to a double-elimination tournament. This gives the top two teams a large advantage over the next two

There. I fixed it.

Those of you who rely on wiki should know it can be an unreliable source and frequently has articles written by authors who are pushing a particular point of view.

Sounds like yourself?

I don't know what your point is beyond the shallow, drive-by kind of trolling, but this quote is from wikepedia about itself:In addition to that I would add, "not to mention advocacy pretending to be objective information." Much of this stuff gets disputed, but even so, it can easily be "corrected" back to the advocate's position. The comment about the kind of playoff format used as being "similar to double elimination" was obviously opinion, and obviously not factual, since it is actually not very much like double elimination at all in very important ways.

I guess my shallow drive-by kind of trolling was that, in my opinion, you excercised the same liberties that you condemed the other poster and wikepedia for exercising.

It just struck me as ironic.....no biggie...i still care as much about you as I always have! :D

5'10.....180 lbs.

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: .

How come there is no forum here for Curling referees?

Probably because so many prefer a flat iron.;)