Projo Sports Blog

By David King
San Antonio Express-News

BEIJING - No matter who wins the Olympic gold medal in baseball later this week, the sport has not done itself any good at these Games.

First, there were the assorted ugly scenes from Monday's game between the United States and China. From six hit batters - including one hit in the back of the head - to three ejections, the game was not exactly an advertisement for the values of the sport in the Olympics.

Both teams probably deserve some of the blame for the ugly scene. Nick Schierholtz's standing-up collision at home plate with China's catcher, Yang Yang - which spurred much of the later unpleasantness - could have been avoided.

From all indications, Yang was on top of the plate, and a collision was inevitable. But the ball was cut off by the first baseman, and someone on Team USA should have been in Schierholtz's view, getting him to slide anyway.

China manager Jim Lefebvre, already upset about a hard slide by Matt LaPorta that knocked China's first catcher out of the game, argued that Schierholtz should have been ejected for the collision. Lefebvre, instead, was tossed after a string of profanity audible in the stands.

The next inning started with the ugly sight of LaPorta taking an up-and-in fastball off the back his helmet. LaPorta, who was hit as he was spinning away from the pitch, was lucky the ball the ball wasn't a little lower, since a fastball to the neck probably would have produced a worse result than a minor concussion.

A couple of U.S. players said if the game had been in the majors - or even the minors - the benches would have emptied. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed.

After the game, Lefebvre said emphatically that he does not teach pitchers to throw at hitters. But his ejection probably didn't help cool any tempers in his dugout, either.

As if that wasn't enough, Team Canada took out its frustrations during yet another one-run loss, this one to Japan, on Monday. Upset with the umpires, the Canadians tossed bats and helmets on the field and let loose with even more audible profanity.

And while cursing and collisions at home plate and even ejections are as much a part of the game as spitting and scratching, they're not doing much good for the game's image.

There's also the issue of the quality of the field, which drops off considerably after South Korea, Cuba, Japan and the United States. The Netherlands, for all its progress, still isn't competitive with teams outside Europe, and Canada's talent pool is pretty thin if its big-leaguers aren't allowed to play. Taiwan has struggled after its own doping scandal this year, and the host country is still building a program.

These issues are important because members of the International Olympic Committee will vote next year on whether to reinstate baseball and softball to the program for 2016.

Softball, swept up in baseball's assorted negatives (no major-leaguers playing in the Games, a gigantic drug scandal, etc.), has its own issues after the U.S. team's embarrassingly easy run through the Olympics. But at least the players and their coaches have behaved.

 Tags  baseball Olympics

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