The IOC has chosen to drop baseball and softball from the 2012 London games.

Personally, I don't mind dropping the basbeball so much. But why did they drop the softball? Could it be because the American team is unbeatable in softball, and the Europeans were the ones leading the charge to have it dropped? Its sad when they have to dull down a country's victories by simply removing their sports from the games. French people fuckin' suck, by the way.

Professional sports shouldn't be in the Olympics anyway.  There isn't a National 100 Meter Dash League or a Long Jump Assossiation of <county>, and that's because they are in the Olympics.  Activities that have national league and an Olympic field are just greedy :P

Volleyball, cycling, football, gymnastics, boxing, judo, wrestlting, those are all Olympic sports that I think are 'professional'

Swimming, too, is professional, though it doesn't have a big fan following.

However, what pisses me off is Europe's beloved soccer is _just_ as professional and commercial as baseball, yet is still on the list.

Why would they only remove softball & not baseball?

There aren't too many leagues besides America's that play baseball and softball.

That ain't the point, why would they take it away...:;(

Conserve time and money?

That's ridiculous

So we'll keep Badminton?

Everyone loves Badminton! :(

[quote author=Topaz link=topic=12142.msg119683#msg119683 date=1120843206]
Everyone loves Badminton! :(
[/quote]

I hate it with a passion. But then again I am in Canada <3

They obviously decided to get rid of the sports we dominated. Oh well.

If you're talking about getting rid of professional sports, you should have read what is in that article. They wanted to get Rugby in. Thats a pretty professional sport in EUROPE. They're trying to get the sports they're good at in and the sports they suck ass at out.

I noticed they didn't remove hockey from 2010 or 2014 winter olympics, and that's a VERY professional sport (aside from right now, where the "professionals" are acting more like children).

[quote author=MyndFyre link=topic=12142.msg119690#msg119690 date=1120846378]
I noticed they didn't remove hockey from 2010 or 2014 winter olympics, and that's a VERY professional sport (aside from right now, where the "professionals" are acting more like children).

[/quote]
Just because it is a professional sport doesn't mean there have to be any professional people ;)

Also, wtf, "With two slots open on the program, the IOC voted from a waiting list of five sports: golf, rugby, squash, karate and roller sports."
GOLF!?  Roller sports!?  X-games for blading people, you already have some retarded form of skating in a circle..

[quote author=Topaz link=topic=12142.msg119668#msg119668 date=1120838789]
There aren't too many leagues besides America's that play baseball and softball.
[/quote]
cuba, japan, and canada are the only other three I can think of.  Of course I don't really follow forgien baseball or domestic baseball for that matter.  Fun to play but really fucking boring to watch.