The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

Courtney Gemmett
State University of New York at Cortland

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

Introduction
On July 8th, 2005, softball and baseball were dropped from the Olympics. These two
sports were the first sports dropped from the Olympics since 1936 when water polo was dropped.
Softball and baseball were the only two sports of 28 sports to be dropped from the Olympics.
The two sports were still in the 2008 Olympics but were discontinued after. The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to keep wrestling over softball and baseball in the most recent
voting in 2013. This leads to the sports not being in the Olympics for the 2016, 2020 and 2024
Summer Olympics (Silva, 2013). Softball and baseball should still be one of the many sports that
compete in the summer Olympics and should be reinstated into the next games immediately. The
two sports are just as competitive, mentally and physically demanding as other sports in the
Olympics. USA Today (2005) states that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports
compared to driving a race car, pole vaulting and more. The revoking of baseball and softball in
the Olympics has also taken a toll on childrens futures by impairing their chances of playing
professionally. The United States of America, as a nation, needs to do more to reinstate softball
and baseball in the Olympics due to the wide success of the two teams in the Olympics.
Questionable actions by the IOC
Questions arose after the vote to drop softball from the 2012 Olympics. The vote was
done secretly and the IOC stated that it did not receive the majority of votes that it needed to stay
an Olympic sport. The IOC is made up of 85% men and decided to discontinue a womens sport
that now exists in 127 countries (Hersh, 2012). The teams in these countries play competitively
and are fighting to grow as a sport. However, sports such as sailing, judo, shooting and
equestrian dressage/eventing/jumping have continued to stay in the Olympics. Judo is a
Japanese form of wrestling, sailing consists of racing yachts, and in shooting competitors aim to

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

hit targets from various distances (Olympics, 2014). None of these sports compare to the impact
that softball and baseball have had on people all around the world.
History of Softball and Baseball
The origin of baseball in America can be dated back to before the Civil War. There is no
true story of how baseball myths have been created such as it is believed that the sport is derived
from the English sport, rounders. Albert Spalding, who was a baseball executive, disagreed
and strongly believed that baseball began in America. To decide this, there was a committee
organized that ultimately decided that Abner Doubleday invented baseball. Although, the truth is
that each state had its own version of the game. All of these versions were exclusive to men.
Many of the games also included gambling in between innings (Thorn, 2011).
Softball did not begin like many people think it did. The sport actually came from a
football game in the 1880s. After a Harvard-Yale football game, resulting in a Yale win, a Yale
alumnus threw a boxing glove at an opposing fan. The Harvard fan hit the glove with a stick and
someone jokingly exclaimed, Play ball! Football fans then used a boxing glove and a broom
handle to create the first ever softball game (History of Softball, 2014).
Difficulty of the sport
Softball and baseball require a lot of skill and talent. It has been said that hitting a
baseball is the hardest thing to do in any sport. To succeed, one must fail seven out of ten times.
A batter in baseball has approximately 350 milliseconds to ultimately see and decide whether or
not they will be swinging at a pitch. They then have 50 milliseconds to commit to the swing,
after that they cannot check swing. The batter must then hit a 90 mph ball with a two-pound
wooden bat as far as they can. The batter also has seven milliseconds for margin of error to make
connection with the ball. If they hit the ball seven milliseconds after the perfect timing, the ball
will go foul (Peterson, 2011). This can all be seen in Appendix A. The claim has also been made

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

that it is harder to hit a softball. The distance from the pitchers mound to homeplate is 17 feet
closer than in baseball. A softball thrown by Jennie Finch, one of the sports most famous
players, will be approximately 70 mph from 43 feet away, which is equivalent to a fastball in
baseball thrown at 90 mph, 60 feet away (Neyer, 2004).
To make things harder, pitchers throw different types of pitches. This includes a
curveball, splitter, knuckleball and other breaking pitches. The different types of breaking pitches
can be seen in Appendix B (Ellis, 2014). This affects the way the ball is viewed coming towards
the batter and plate. A change in pitch forces the batter to make a quicker decision based on the
spin of the ball and where it will come across the plate. This also affects the batters decision of
when to swing because the timing of the ball being pitched will be different compared to a
fastball being thrown. If a batter is a few milliseconds off, they will swing and miss the ball
completely. At a certain point, when a batter swings, they have completely committed to
swinging the bat and they are unable to stop, creating more of a pressure to be precise. (Mihoces,
2003).
These two sports also require a great amount mental skill. Research by Dr. Lefkowits and
Dr. McDuff (2009) states that, players are on a team and learn the value of depending on
teammates. The players learn that they cannot do everything themselves, that they cannot control
every aspect of the game, such as the umpires calls and other players plays. They also cannot
control field and weather conditions. Players learn things they can control including their
mechanics, pitch selection and the timing of their swing. Pitchers learn to focus and use imagery
to hit the corners of the plate, batters use imagery to see themselves making connection with
their bat to the ball and fielders use imagery to see themselves making the catch. These concepts
are seen in other sports, mainly in track and field and gymnastics.

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

Children missing out on playing

Not having softball in the Olympic hurts children and teenagers dreams everywhere. It
hinders the experience girls have. They do not have a version of Major League Baseball (MLB)
to look forward to. They look forward to having a college career and a slim to none chance of
playing for one of the USA National teams that are widely over looked. At least for baseball,
there is the MLB, which consists of 32 teams holding a 25-man roster, equating to 800 people.
Whereas, the Womens USA Softball Team consists solely of 17 players. It is shown in
Appendix C. that only .5% of athletes who participate in baseball will be able to go to the
professional level after playing high school baseball. Comparing this to the Womens USA
Softball team, it is clear that the percent would be even lower than .5% (NCAA, 2013). Being
able to learn about the Olympics is also beneficial for children.
A study was done by Saulius ukys and Daiva Majuskien (2014) that showed that
students who were taught about Olympic programs exhibited more Olympic values than children
who did not experience the program. The test measures, Olympic values, prosocial and antisocial
behavior in sport and data analysis. Our results showed that athletes from schools where an
integrated Olympic education program is implemented, emphasized Olympic values associated
with individual pursuit of excellence more prominently than did athletes attending schools where
there is no such program (p. 811).
The United States in the Olympics
In the first Olympic Games that softball was instated for, the United States national team
won their first gold medal over China. Following the 1996 Olympic Games, the United States
also won the gold medal in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games and the silver medal in the 2008
Olympic Games. Also, solely in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the team broke 11 World

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

Records including most doubles, triples, runs batted in, runs score and more. Their stellar
performance did not stop there though, the national team continued to win seven Pan American
Championships and seven World Championship Gold Medals. The two teams success could be a
large reason of why the sports were revoked from the Olympics (Team USA, 2014).
American baseballs success in the Olympics is a little less, however. Since 1984, when
baseball was first admitted into the Olympics, the national team has won five medals (two gold,
two bronze and one silver). Also, another problem discussed with taking baseball out of the
Olympics is building a baseball stadium that may never be used again in some countries. Many
host cities do not use the same venues again after building them for an event like the Olympics.
Many MLB players do not have the opportunity to participate in the Olympics due to the
rigorous schedule the MLB has created for the players. This is not a large amount of rest time for
them to be able to have free time or participate in other activities, especially the Olympics which
have such a demanding schedule (Caple, 2012).
Another speculation for the release of softball and baseball from the Olympics comes
from the idea that the sports do not have enough global following. However, this is widely
contradicted as the World Baseball Classic contains 28 countries from five of the seven
continents. Baseball has a large following in three of those continents, those three being North
America, South America and Asia. Baseball has been deemed North Americas pastime and
South America has produced over 100 of the MLBs best players. Lastly, South Korea and Japan
have two of the largest MLB followings and their professional leagues are very competitive to
the United States League (Davidson, 2014).
Hope to be reinstated

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

As of September 2013, the IOC has declared that softball and baseball would not be
reinstated into the Olympics for the 2020 games. However, that has not stopped the two sports
from fighting to get back in. The president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, has stated that the only
way softball and baseball will be reinstated is if the best players in both of the sports compete in
the Olympics. This would mean that the baseball would need to most likely extend the All-Star
break. The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) is currently working on a way
to accommodate the two interests (Kolatch, 2013).
Conclusion
All in all, softball and baseball should be reinstated into the Olympics. It allows amateur
players to pursue their dream of winning a medal and competing in the games. The two sports
have a wide enough global following to have fans and players all around the world. And lastly,
baseball and softball have showed a history in trying to participate in the Olympics.

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

Works Cited
Caple, J. (2012). Bring baseball back to the Olympics. ESPN. Retrieved from
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8221696/bring-baseball-back-olympics
Davidson, K. (2014). Bring baseball back into the Olympics. Bloomberg View. Retrieved from
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-01-24/bring-baseball-back-to-the-olympics
Ellis, S. (2014). Different Baseball Pitches. The Complete Pitcher. Retrieved from
http://www.thecompletepitcher.com/different_baseball_pitches.htm
Estimated probability of competing in athletics beyond the high school interscholastic level.
(2013). NCAA Research. Retrieved from
https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Probability-of-going-promethodology_Update2013.pdf
Hersh, P. (2012). Mourning the loss of softball as an Olympic sport. LA Times. Retrieved from
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/07/sports/la-spw-oly-softball-20120808
History of softball (2014). Athletic Scholarships. Retrieved from
http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-softball.htm
Kolatch, J. (2013). Baseball and softball belong in the Olympics. LA Times. Retrieved from
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/03/opinion/la-oe-kolatch-softball-olympics-ioc20130903
Lefkowit, J. & McDuff, D. (2009). Mental toughness training manual for baseball/softball
players. Retrieved from http://www.mdsports.net/docs/mentalskillsbaseball.pdf

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

Mihoces, G. (2003). The hardest: Getting bat to meet ball. USA Today. Retrieved from
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/2003-03-02-ten-hardest-hitting-baseball_x.htm
Neyer, R. (2004). The softer they come. Why is it so hard to hit a softball? Slate. Retrieved from
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/fivering_circus/2004/08/the_softer_they_come.html
Sports and disciplines. (2014). Official website of the Olympic Movement. Retrieved from
http://www.olympic.org/sports
Silva, D. (2013). Baseball, softball will not return for 2020 Olympics. Hardball
talk. Retrieved from
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/09/08/there-will-be-no-baseballor-softball-at-the-2020-olympics/
ukys S. and Majuskien, D. (2013). Effects of an integrated Olympic
education program on adolescent athletes values and sport behavior.
Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 42(5) 811821.
Peterson, D (2011). Hitting a baseball-The hardest thing to do in sports. Axon Potential.
Retrieved from http://www.axonpotential.com/hitting-a-baseball-the-hardest-thing-to-doin-sports/
Team USA.(2014). Womens program history. Retrieved from http://www.teamusa.org/USASoftball/Team-USA/History/Women
Thorn, J. (2011). Baseball in the garden of eden: The secret history of the early game. New York:
Simon & Schuster.

The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

10 hardest things to do in sports. (2005). USA Today. Retrieved from
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/ten-hardest-splash.htm

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The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

Appendix A.

Appendix B.

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The Elimination of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics

Appendix C.

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