Olympic Softball

Since no one with any clout seems to be saying it, I'm going to say it: Olympic Softball this year was a sham.

Now, let's think about who's making this statement. I'm as big a fan of the USA National Softball team as there is among the non-playing crowd, and I've tuned in to every World Cup and College World Series game since high school. I know the players, I follow the NPF (National Pro Fastpitch) whenever I can, and I even added a few National team commemorative cards to my over-sized baseball card collection. And, having time to tune in to the Olympics for the first time this year, I watched every match the USA played, save the last one.

And that's where the problem arises. Because I did watch the USA defeat Japan's non-Ueno pitching staff in Pool Play, and I did enjoy seeing the replay of the thrilling 4-1 extra-inning masterpiece that should be required viewing for anyone trying to expel the sport from the Olympic games. But then, when they should have been taking on Australia--the winner of the Canada/Australia semi-final matchup--for the Gold Medal in the last Olympic softball game for the foreseeable future, somehow, they faced Japan instead.

My beef is this: the "playoff" round--as opposed to the Pool Play round--featured the top four seeds from the Pool Play: USA, Japan, Australia, and Canada. In the alleged semi-finals, the USA beat Japan while Australia beat Canada. And then, naturally, a losing team, Japan, got to play Australia and get a second chance...wait, what? That's insane, folks, and it's insane for two reasons.

1. Why did Japan, the #2 seeded squad at 6-1 in Pool Play, play the #1 seeded team in the first round? How is this fair to them, having worked hard in the other games even while saving Ueno up, to have to play the best team despite earning another opponent? What tournament in the world seeds their semi-finals 1 vs 2 and 3 vs 4?

2. Why why why WHY would the #2 team then get two opportunities in the playoff rounds (since they lost once to start) at reaching the Gold Medal game, but the USA have only the single shot at taking the gold? Think about it: in essence, Japan was playing in a double-elimination tournament format, while the USA, Australia, and Canada were all playing single-elimination. How does this make sense? If we're going to force feed the two-seed into a 1-2 matchup, and then give them an extra chance to get back to the Gold Medal game, then why didn't the USA, who had already beat them once in the playoff round (not to mention in Pool Play), have a second chance to take the gold? After all, Japan did, falling once but then taking it all, despite only evening the playoff series at 1-1.

In both cases, how does that make any sense to a rational mind? No Little League tournament would get away with such a poorly-construed tournament format, let alone one that rewards a team for losing its first game in the playoff portion. This is nuts, and I find it amazing that fewer people involved with softball are voicing their disapproval. If there's anything about Olympic softball that suggests it should be gone from the Olympics, it's that their federation can come up with so crummy of a seeding- and playoff-format.

Again, this isn't to take away from Japan's performance in the alleged Gold Medal game, which was fantastic, and all the credit in the world is due to Yukiko Ueno, who pitched the game of her life. But I just don't agree that she should have had the extra opportunity to pitch that transcendent game, because the format of the playoffs for Olympic softball defied logic.

On a lighter note, I am very sad to see softball get the boot. I can't say that I agree with any of the official reasons for its dismissal--unpopularity with Europe--or the unofficial ones--American dominance. While I'm not European, I think they're missing out on a lot of quality competition in shunning softball and baseball, but I can address the second so-called reason that seems to be more popularly accredited as the cause behind the decision (a 52-52 vote, by the way). People said that America was too good for the sports sake, and that it made the sport pointless because the result was a foregone conclusion. But consider the way Olympic basketball went early on. The USA simply dominated, winning each Olympic tournament (save the clock-referee debacle against Russia in 1972) until Athens, when Argentina took the world by storm and walked away with the Gold. The USA had been as dominant as anyone in any sport, especially once professionals entered the picture, but yet, the sport endured and, over time, the gap between the USA and the rest of the world began to shrink, to the point now where ESPN is fawning over the resurgent squad in the Gold Medal game in Beijing. Who's to say that softball won't one day become like basketball, where the Olympic and World Cup tournaments are competitive affairs?

Softball may be gone from the 2012 Olympics in London, but there's hope for its return in 2016. Visit Back Softball to take a look at some of the efforts being made to bring it back, and make sure to tune in to the World Cup and College World Series to show your viewership-support for the sport. I know I've enjoyed watching the beautiful and supremely-talented woman of the USA National Team compete and, while I realize the silver medal feels like a disappointment, be proud of what you've done and, I'm sure, how many young women look up to you.