Jump to content

How about our Cnd baseball team [R]


Free kick

Recommended Posts

On a similar tack, but different, how did New Zealand and Australia both get into the men's hoops finals? I believe they were the two teams knocked out after the prelims and surely Canada would have a better team than New Zealand if not Australia as well.

I think it's a little ridiculous that there are three teams from Europe in baseball and two from the Americas.

cheers,

matthew

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 55
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Europe is only allocated two of the eight Olympic baseball places. Greece is there as the hosts.

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

The Aussie lucky victory over Japan really sunk our chances. Imagine that, Australia wins the silver.

It took a lot more than luck for Australia to beat Japan twice in this tournament. Good pitching beat good hitting in their semifinal.

In the final the Cubans needed help from the Dominican umpire who called an Australian hit off the wall an out. That said, if Canada had got by Cuba I would have loved our chances for the gold against the Aussies.

It is ridiculous that NZ and Australia both have places in the Olympic basketball tournament when North and South America have to share three spots.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To sort this out.

Australia was to play Guam (South Pacific Games Champion)until the latter pulled out just before the start of the series. Australia therefore advanced to face South Africa (African Games Champions) and swept the South Africans in three straight.

All the regions had qualifying tournaments for basketball. The Americas is so expansive due to the distance in relation to competition. Baseball is in a similar position as is rugby.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was disappointing to read in the papers this morning the reason why Shawn Hill was yanked against Cuba the other night. Apparantly the team had a deal with the Expos that he would be on a 90 pitch count for each start. Hill had reached 85. So after losing Francis and Mourneau to the big leagues days before the tournament started, we now find out that the professional clubs had an even greater impact on how the events unfolded in the olympic baseball tourny. This has to make a bit of a mockery of the tourny and thankfully, you don't get this kind of garbage occuring in international soccer.

Note that after Hill was given the hook, the whole house of cards colapsed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to have to disagree with you here, Free Kick, on the culpability of the Expos. A pitch count is a reasonable demand for a major league organization to make of an Olympic team -- particularly in Shawn Hill's case. In the weeks prior to the Olympics he was suffering from bone spurs in his elbow and only cleared to play in the Olympics at the last minute. I think a 90-pitch count was fair, and it's arguable he would have made it through the 8th inning anyway. Also, keep in mind that had Jeff Francis been allowed to go to the Olympics, the Canadian team had already agreed he'd also have a pitch count (albeit a 120-pitch count).

The bigger travesty was simply Colorado blocking Francis. They'd allowed him to be named to Canada's preliminary roster, he wanted to go, his parents had booked flights and accommodation, and Canada had penciled him in for 3 starts, including what would have been the medal game on Wednesday that Shawn Hill ended up starting. That the classless Colorado organization blocked Francis from his one and only Olympic opportunity in order to have him make a meaningless start for the dreadful Rockies team in late-August (which could easily have been made a week later), says a lot about why baseball may well get the boot from the Olympics in 2012.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Baseball has always been dear to my heart. I was all excited that our boys were doing so well, until we got deflated at the end and ended with zippo. Maybe the fun practice they had playing a fun game against the coaching staff and other admins. was ill advised.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...