this is pathetic

PANAMA CITY, Panama -- The defending champion U.S. baseball team failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics, stunned by Mexico 2-1 Friday in a qualifying tournament.

 

The U.S. team was among the favorites to win the gold medal again, and there was a chance Roger Clemens would have pitched for the Americans.

 

"It was a well-pitched game by their pitchers," said manager Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer. "We were not able to do much until the ninth inning and it was not enough."

 

In 2000, Tom Lasorda managed a team that included Ben Sheets and Doug Mientkiewicz to the gold at Sydney in the first tournament that included professionals.

 

While the Americans were beaten at their own game, countries such as the Netherlands, Italy and Greece are already in the Olympics.

 

"I know Roger Clemens wanted to play. That would've been a big draw for them. That's a shame, because they've got some good players on that team," Mientkiewicz said.

 

"It would've been nice to go out there and defend it, but now they're not going to get that chance," the Minnesota first baseman said. "That's just a shame. I feel for all those guys. It's going to be hard to watch the Olympics now, that's for sure."

 

The Mexican team was a heavy underdog in this quarterfinal game, but got a tiebreaking home run in the ninth inning from Luis A. Garcia off Brian Bruney.

 

Bruney had 26 saves in the Arizona Diamondbacks' minor league system this season.

 

The United States threatened in the bottom of the ninth when Grady Sizemore and former major leaguer Ernie Young led off with singles.

 

With runners on second and third with one out, reliever Isidro Marquez got Justin Leone to ground back to the mound and retired Gerald Laird on a popup to end it.

 

Former New York Mets pitcher Rigo Beltran held the Americans to three hits in seven innings. Justin Leone of the Seattle system homered in the fourth for the U.S. run.

 

Ray Martinez tied it in the fifth with a homer off Cleveland prospect Jason Stanford. The Americans had outscored their opponents 21-0

 

The U.S. roster also included Atlanta rookie pitcher Horacio Ramirez and former big leaguers Mike Lamb and Todd Williams.

 

"We lost a game. I don't think it's a setback for U.S. baseball," said Sandy Alderson, an executive vice president in the commissioner's office and the top American official with the team.

 

"I think it's a validation of the internationalization of the game. As we know, anything can happen in a game or a short series of games," he said.

 

Unlike basketball, the biggest stars in the United States do not play Olympic baseball, jeopardizing the sport's future in the games.

 

Even so, Alderson does not expect top major leaguers to participate four years from now when qualifying begins for the Beijing Summer Games.

 

"This is not about an eligibility issue. This is about a game played well by Mexico and unfortunately lost by the United States. Again, that's the nature of the game. Things happen."

 

The U.S. team went 3-0 in pool play while Mexico lost all three games. But Mexico advanced when the Bahamas forfeited by failing to show up.

 

The Bahamas' action prompted Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin to say: "It makes you wonder if baseball is an Olympic sport."

 

The two finalists in this tournament will reach the Olympics. Canada and Colombia will meet Saturday for the right to play Mexico on Sunday to determine one of the spots.

 

Cuba is the favorite for the other spot.

 

Baseball was a demonstration in the Olympics in 1984 and became a medal sport in 1996, when Cuba won the gold medal in Atlanta.

 

Sheets beat Cuba 4-0 to win the 2000 gold in Australia. Roy Oswalt, Sean Burroughs, Brad Wilkerson and Ryan Franklin also were on that American team.

 

As Mientkiewicz spoke on his cell phone after Friday's loss, he got a call from Mike Neill, who homered in the 2000 gold medal game.

 

"A lot of us used that as kind of a leaping board. It kind of put us on the map, so to speak for baseball," Mientkiewicz said. "That kind of shows how special our team was."

this is bulls***. how the f*** do we not qualify for the olympics in a sport we invented. not only did we invent it, we just won gold 3 years ago.

 

the netherlands? Italy? damn

This is an absolute disgrace. I think it's time to do what basketball did, and get our best players on the field, rather than retired/college players. Just imagine...

the problem with that is that baseball season is still on during the olympics, in fact thats when the races are starting to heat up

 

and its hard to do what the NHL did because NHL teams have a few days between games so they can fit the games in and play the full schedule.

baseball cant do that because teams play everyday.

unless teams make up the games with double-headers or play a shorter season.

 

my solution to finding out the best country in baseball: a baseball world cup. do it in the winter in a warm american city or latin america

This is an absolute disgrace. I think it's time to do what basketball did, and get our best players on the field, rather than retired/college players. Just imagine...

yeah, then we'd have a bunch of players who don't even want to be there and won't play 100% and will trash their hotel room if they lose. 80% of the players will refuse to go.

They should just remove any sport from the olympics where the olympics are not the pinnacle of the sport.

Here's an idea to fix this problem:

 

Play better baseball.

 

That is all.

The U.S. team went 3-0 in pool play while Mexico lost all three games. But Mexico advanced when the Bahamas forfeited by failing to show up.

:lol

This is an absolute disgrace. I think it's time to do what basketball did, and get our best players on the field, rather than retired/college players. Just imagine...

i disagree

 

and i think basketball should go back to college players

The competition was said to be horribly organized. There was no process to rescheduling the many rainouts. Oh well. Too late to make excuses now.

 

It really is unfair that the Olympic games are open to amateurs when Cuba, and other current and past communist countries, can put out their best. The cut-off should be similar to what they do in soccer, by age. Or maybe using players up until they are eligible for free agency, and/or not playing for a top-tier professional league (MLB, NTB.)

 

But it seems that the Olympic committee can go along with their plans of discontinuing baseball as an Olympic sport... MLB planning World Cup for 2005 Spring Training

They should get rid of baseball in olympics. They should get rid of any sport where the olympics are not the pinnacle of the sport.