also think it's ridiculous that the supposed reason for removing baseball is because the MLB players aren't there. Wouldn't it be better for the Olympics if the playing field is a bit more level? You would think so, especially after seeing the 157-83 basketball debacle between USA and Nigeria yesterday. If the IOC is going to lie, they should just say that it's too cost prohibitive to build baseball stadiums in places where they don't have the facilities right now (and they won't be too useful to most host countries afterwards). The United States has hardly dominated baseball at the Olympics. They have won one gold (2 if you count 1984) and even failed to qualify in 2004. In softball it is a different story which was dominated by the US until 2008. So if anything the IOC is anti-Asian (japan and South Korea specifically) and Cuban. The Olympics were the only place that people cared prior to the WBC about Cubans beating the US in baseball, so it was an opportunity for them to shine and showcase players (who might later defect). The WBC is the answer to promoting the game internationally. The continued expansion of the WBC with qualifiers in the fall is great. Baseball needs to get some of the final rounds (like the Soccer World Cup we should now call the main phase of the tournament the finals) to be played in Europe. In the future instead of all-star teams baseball would benefit from a Heineken