Team USA defeated Japan to take the bronze medal in this years Olympics.  It is pretty obvious to me that defending champs Cuba will repeat as gold medalists.

If any of you were previously unaware, the IOC, a European dominated committee, decided that baseball was not star studded enough and eliminated the sport along with softball from the 2012 Olympics in London.  Belgian born and bred Jacques Rogge, Mr. Prez of the International Olympic Committee, feels that baseball lacks international appeal, indirectly citing that Bud Selig and his goon squad do not allow the best American players to compete while nations like Japan and Korea do.  Softball was phased out for being too one sided as the USA dominated all international competition since its inauguration as an Olympic sport in 1996.  On Thursday the Japanese women upset the US to take the gold in softball.

Personally, I think it is just stupid to oust baseball and softball; if you are going to get rid of a one sided sport like softball then do us all a favor and eliminate ping pong and badminton too. I'd like to see MLB allow all players to return to their countries and compete in the Olympics, but it is just too impractical.  The actual tournament lasts just under two weeks, but in total Selig would have to stop play for close to a month, which is out of the question in a sport that lasts too long already.  Anyways, Bud has a man crush on the World Baseball Classic.  Hopefully we have baseball again by 2016 in Chicago.

Interesting tidbit: Baseball was an Olympic sport from 1992-2008.  The last sport to be voted out by the IOC? Equestrian Polo in 1936.