DECISION A SWIPE AT U.S.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

Guess they showed us, huh? Yeah, baby, really gave it to the Americans on that one. Just flipped us the big European bird.

America's national pastime? Do not need it. An exciting women's team sport, which just happens to be dominated by the Americans, crushed like a cockroach.

Yes, indeed, really confirmed just who is running this international sports extravaganza.

The Olympics no longer need baseball or softball. Hasn't got room for them. Shoved aside like someone in tank top and thongs at a black-tie affair.

Team handball, glad to have you. Synchronized swimmers, turn your plastic smiles to the cameras on the left.

Badminton, archery, shooting, horseback riding, trampoline, rhythmic gymnastics, ping-pong - just giddy you could all make it.

Baseball and softball, thanks for the memories, and don't forget the pine tar on your way out.

What a charade. What a complete joke.

The International Olympic Committee, in a spineless secret ballot, voted to eliminate baseball and softball.

Voted the first sports out of the Olympics in 69 years without explanation. Simply told international baseball and softball it was no longer wanted.

``We worked very hard to get the IOC to accept baseball, and now to see them change their minds is really disappointing,'' said Peter O'Malley, the former Dodgers owner and key figure in international baseball. ``Baseball has grown, it has prospered.

``I just hope it doesn't set back the growth of baseball, but I'm afraid it will.''

Baseball was first introduced as a demonstration sport at Dodger Stadium during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. It became an official medal sport in 1992 in Barcelona.

It's not like it wasn't a success. Fans often filled stadiums. In Atlanta in 1996 the 32 baseball games averaged almost 30,000.

Cuba has been the baseball power at the Olympics. It has won every gold medal except in 2000, when Tommy Lasorda managed the U.S. to the top of the podium in Australia.

``I'm shocked,'' Lasorda said. ``I just don't believe that's happened to baseball and softball, two outstanding sports, two progressive sports.

``I saw what baseball meant to the Olympics, the huge crowds that gathered and packed the stadiums. I went and watched the women play softball and saw how they were cheered.

``You think you're going to pack stadiums for squash or roller whatever? Not to demean those sports, but it's not going to happen.

``It's just ludicrous.''

On many fronts, it's simply illogical.

Baseball was not a major success last year in Greece, where temporary stadiums were built far from downtown on runways of the old airport.

There's not much baseball played in Greece. Not a lot played in most of Europe, which, of course, is the problem.

Baseball is huge in the United States, Central America, the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. It's taking hold in China, Australia and Italy. An emerging international sport.

It is certainly popular enough when compared to many Olympic sports, some of which seem almost silly. And I'm here to tell you, ping-pong - excuse me, table tennis - is not a big Olympic draw. Badminton and judo are not packing them in.

Baseball's biggest problem is that it's American.

Yet baseball is going to be just fine here without the Olympics. As Brewers pitcher and 2000 Olympian Ben Sheets noted, no baseball player grows up in the U.S. dreaming of playing in the Olympics.

But they do in Cuba. It means something in South Korea and Mexico. It's the other countries that will be most hurt.

Baseball also is expensive to put on, particularly in countries such as Greece, where it is not played and stadiums have to be built.

``No doubt about that,'' O'Malley said. ``In Greece that was a big factor. In China they already have baseball fields. Greece didn't help us.

``They lost money not only for the facilities, but then you have to factor in teams of 22 to 25 players.''

Some IOC type was quoted as complaining the U.S. doesn't allow players from Major League Baseball to attend, but soccer withholds its top international players, and there are no cries to cut it.

Another IOC member complained that baseball's drug problem in the U.S. cost it dearly.

``That's just wrong,'' Lasorda said. ``All Olympians have to pass drug tests, or they don't play.''

As bad as it is for international baseball, it's probably worse for softball. Women need an exciting team sport. A growing international sport that offers an outlet for women, which used to be an Olympic ideal.

Former Camarillo High School standout and 2004 Olympian Jessica Mendoza said she first heard of the Olympic vote Thursday night after a game with her Arizona Heat.

``It came out of nowhere,'' she said. ``The IOC and everyone had assured us that not only would they not kick us out, it wouldn't even come up for a vote.

``When I heard, it was like a blow to the stomach. It was absolutely shocking.''

The U.S. has won all three golds since softball joined the Olympics in 1996. The U.S. outscored its Olympic opponents 51-1 in Athens, a domination that might have hurt softball as much as its ties to baseball.

``If that did play a role in the decision, then that's pretty pathetic,'' Crystl Bustos, the former Canyon High of Canyon Country standout and Olympic star, told the Associated Press. ``I don't mean to cut anybody down, but it's supposed to be the best of the best, and if you get knocked for your excellence, then that's just not right.''

The U.S. once dominated men's basketball, and we've all seen how that's evolved.

The IOC vote eliminated baseball and softball beginning in 2012 in London, giving them a final show in China in 2008.

``People keep asking me, 'What are you going to do now?' They say, 'Oh, no, it's over,''' Mendoza said.

``But we still have 2008 to use as a showcase. I'm looking at it that it's only gone for 2012. We have to use the next four years to show them how wrong they were.''

Right now, it's just the IOC showing America who's running the show.

It's a new era for Olympics. Each of the games that's not a premier international sport will have to wonder if it will be the next to voted out.

Particularly if it's big in America.

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Photo:

The softball and baseball fields at Regents' Park in London will go unused for the 2012 Olympics because of the IOC's decision to drop the sports.

Getty Images