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Japan Turns Fastpitch Softball World On it's Golden Head
#85 - 1--gm--Japan Turns Fastpitch Softball World On it's Golden Head--2008-08-22 11:07:32
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Japan Turns Softball World On it's Head
USA Softball loss signifies more than end of a dynasty
Softball Players, coaches aim toward 2016 Games
Can Mexico Enter the Olympics for Softball in 2016
BEIJING - At the Olympic Games, there weren't a lot of tears, at least on the field for USA Softball as they lost to Japan in the Gold Medal Game giving Softball it's biggest upset in the history of the sport. Those would have to come later, when the realization that it really is all over finally sinks in. In their place were hugs, even a few forced smiles.
At home plate there were five sets of softball cleats, left there by USA Softball players who will now be moving on. A new generation will replace them on the U.S. national team, just like they had taken the place of others who went before.
For U.S.A. slugger Crystl Bustos and four others there wasn't any question it was over. The medals may not have been the color they came for, but they wore them knowing that they would be their last.
-At least they had closure. Everyone else on the field could only wonder if this was the end for them, too.
Because softball is gone from the Olympics, and it may never come back.
Give the sport credit. On a gloomy night in Beijing, it exited with a twist. Japan halted the U.S. winning streak in Olympic contests and won gold over the Americans.
The biggest reason softball got booted in the first place was that the USA always won. After Japan stunned the U.S. with a 3-1 win in the gold medal game, the International Olympic Committee will have to look for another excuse not to reinstate the sport for the 2016 games.
"If this can be an aid for us to get back in the Olympics, so be it," U.S. coach Mike Candrea said.
That they may have helped save the sport for future generations wasn't much consolation for an American team that had won 22 straight Olympic games and hadn't given up an earned run in Beijing before being roughed up in the gold medal final.
They stood mostly stone-faced on the medal stand, watching as the Japanese accepted the first golds in softball for anyone other than the U.S. Catcher Stacey Nuveman seemed to be the only one interested in the silver hanging from her neck, studying it as if it was some strange foreign object.
Then something happened that could melt the heart of even the most hardened IOC member. Players from all three medal-winning countries gathered on the field between home plate and the pitcher's mound and began taking yellow softballs out of plastic buckets.
With painstaking precision they lined them up, and when they were done they all gathered behind the message they wanted to make to the world. Australian, Japanese and American, they stood together behind their masterpiece.
Spelled out on the field was their simple yet effective plea: 2016.
All tournament long they had been rivals. Now they were co-conspirators.
"Back softball, back softball," the players chanted.
In the stands, a fan wearing a floppy hat had his own message. He held up a handmade sign for the 10,000 who braved rain to watch the final.
"Goodbye softball and they're keeping ping pong," it read.
Actually, it's called table tennis and there's no chance it will be expelled from the games. That wasn't the case with both baseball and softball, which both got the boot for 2012 and which are both trying to get reinstated.
Softball figures to have a better chance than baseball after losing its status for London by only one vote. Both sports have organized campaigns for reinstatement in the 2016 games and a vote scheduled a year from now. It didn't hurt that IOC president Jacques Rogge was in the stands a day earlier for an epic day of semifinal action.
"I don't think this is a long-term decision," said IOC member Dick Pound, who presented medals to the winning teams. "Keep the [votes] you had, get two more and you're home free."
That may not be as easy as it sounds among an IOC membership that tends to skew against American interests, and there's nothing more American than baseball and softball. The United States has only two members on the committee and they may be too busy trying to champion Chicago's bid for the 2016 games to have much time to lobby for the return of the two sports.
If this was the last Olympic softball game, the sport ended its run with an entertaining affair that showed that the world is finally gaining on the Americans and that one pitcher can make a disproportional difference in a team's chances.
In this case it was Japan's Yukiko Ueno, who pitched 21 innings in two games the day before only to limit the U.S. to just one run over seven innings on a Bustos homer to right field.
That was enough to snatch the gold medal from the Americans, who kept their emotions in check just long enough to get out in the parking lot, where tears flowed with the realization that it was now over.
On the field, meanwhile, the Chinese were partying like there was no tomorrow. Hundreds of volunteers drank beer, sprayed champagne, listened to speeches and sang karaoke to celebrate a successful Olympics at the Fengtai Field.
The cleats left by the departing American players were still around home plate, ignored by all as the party went on. Those players were done, that much was certain. Only time will tell if softball is, too.
Now, if it can come back, can Mexico be part of its' resurgence? With 100 million people who love Baseball and with attitudes about Women in society changing to a more modernized perspective where women involved in competitive endeavors is growing forward, it's certainly possible that in 8 years, our current crop of 10 - 12 year old players could be playing in the Olympics. Why Not? Stay Tuned
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