(ATR) The last out in the Olympic softball final Thursday night was a routine throw from third base to first that gave Japan a 3-1 victory over the United States. Whether it goes down in history as the Megu Hirose slides home safe in the seventh inning. (Getty Images)last out ever in an Olympic softball game is still up in the air.
Voted out of the Olympic program for 2012, the sport has a chance to come back swinging in 2016. Softball is one of seven sports lobbying to get in - or back in - the Games when the IOC votes in October 2009 in Copenhagen.
By crowning a different champion, the sport now has a new argument for reinstatement. The U.S. had a stranglehold on the gold medal since the sport took the Olympic field in 1996 -- and such dominance was criticized by some IOC members. The U.S. went into the gold-medal match-up with a 22-game Olympic winning streak dating back to Sydney, and an 8-0 record in Beijing. It even had beaten Japan the previous day 4-1 in extra innings.
"I really kind of feel that maybe people will get off our back and realize that there is some parity in this game," U.S. coach Mike Candrea said. "I've always felt that the rest of the world is getting better. It's nice to see a full room of reporters here -- we've had an empty room most of the time.
"Who knows what will happen? I don't worry about that. I've been in the game long enough to respect everyone we play. Sometimes the game looks easy and it really isn't."
But U.S. players failed to see any silver lining in their silver medal.
They were grim and teary-eyed on awards stand. If softball does make it back into the Olympic fold in eight years, many will be too old to play or will have moved on without the incentive of the London Games.
"The loss just hurts too much to think that far ahead in the future," said losing pitcher Cat Osterman. "It's disappointing, but hopefully for some of the really young ones there's a chance at reinstatement and another shot at this."
According to the ISF, about 35 to 40 IOC members attended a softball game during the Olympics. IOC members Richard Pound of Canada and Anita De Frantz of the United States saw the gold-medal game and then took part in the awards ceremony. The 10,000-seat Fengtai Softball Field was nearly full, and had vocal cheering sections from Japan and the United States.
IOC president Jacques Rogge, honorary president Juan Antonio Samaranch, and new executive board member Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco attended the Wednesday night game that determined Australia as the bronze medalist.
Japanese coach Haruka Saito said one of her team's objectives was to "make sure that we are able to spread the news of softball around the world to softball fans and to other people about how wonderful the game of softball is. So I think in that sense it was a significant game."
Trying to stay relevant
To maintain interest in softball around the world during the eight-year gap, the ISF announced a major event Friday. International Softball Federation president Don Porter and co-chair of the Back Softball campaign Donna de Varona lead the campaign to return softball to the Games. (ATR)
Next August in a European city that is yet to be announced, the ISF will stage the inaugural Youth World Cup for under-16 girls.
“This is another fantastic development for our sport and underlines its growing popularity,” ISF President Don Porter says.
“Softball is incredibly popular among young people and we’recurrently in the process of drawing up a shortlist of cities.
“We are increasing the number of softball federations all the time but we’re not going to be resting on our laurels and hopefully this event will help us further widen the sport’s appeal.”
Fourth Time Is Golden
Thursday night represented Japan's fourth try at the gold medal. The JPitcher Yukiko Ueno – the so-called Iron Woman – pitched 21 innings the day before the final match. (ATR) apanese team won the silver in 2000 and the bronze in 2004. Yukiko Ueno pitched a complete seven-inning game just one day after pitching 21 innings to help Japan reach the final. With the bases loaded in the first and sixth innings, she kept the U.S. from scoring.
"When I was little, I had watched the Olympics on television and I was so impressed," she said. "And this time I'm the person on television, so my aim was to bring to those viewers some excitement. And that had been my goal, as well as becoming No.1 in the world.
"So I really wasn't that conscious about the fact it is the very last time for softball."
She then expressed her “hope that softball will be brought back to the Olympics for 2016."
The sport can't afford to strike out with the IOC. It was originally booted off the Olympic program at the 2005 IOC session in Singapore, falling one vote short of staying. The next year in Torino, the IOC decided not to vote on softball again. That's two strikes.
Three, and they're out for a very long time.
Maybe forever.
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