Cuban pitcher Elier Sanchez led his team to a 9-0 victory over China. (Getty Images) (ATR) Finalists will be decided Friday at Wukesong Sports Centre Baseball Field for what could be the last gold medal awarded in Olympic baseball.
Fourth-ranked Japan meets top-ranked South Korea at 10:30 a.m. Third-seed U.S. faces archrival Cuba at 6 p.m. At stake, are spots in Saturday evening’s showdown.
U.S. beat Japan in a Wednesday night thriller. The teams engaged in a pitchers’ duel, going scoreless through nine innings. The U.S. finally had four runs in the 11th en route to the 4-2 win.
NBC President and CEO Jeff Zucker and Mizuno Corporation President Akito Mizuno threw the ceremonial first pitches while NBC Sports anchor Bob Costas played umpire before the game.
Other entrants in the eight-team tournament were Japan, Chinese Taipei, Canada, Netherlands and China. China’s only win was an Aug. 15 8-7 upset of the Taiwanese, who were 6-1 losers less than 12 hours earlier to Japan.
The Wukesong Sports Centre Baseball Field will be disassembled after the Games. (Getty Images)
The temporary, three-field complex is adjacent to the permanent Wukesong Basketball Arena in Beijing’s western Haidian district. The main field holds 12,000 and the secondary has a cozier capacity of 2,300. A third practice-only field is also on site.
Wukesong’s baseball field won’t be around for long though. The baseball complex is set to be disassembled after the Games. Major League Baseball (MLB) staged a two-game exhibition there in March featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, but was criticized for not sending marquee players.
A lack of marquee players released for the Olympics by MLB teams is the prime reason why baseball won’t be back for London 2012. “It’s going to be a tough one to get baseball back to the Olympics. They’ve tried everything to get the best players available. I just don’t see the owners of Major League Baseball shutting down their season and losing a lot of revenues,” said Canadian coach and MLB veteran Terry Puhl.
The sport debuted at Barcelona 1992, but the IOC deleted it from the post-Beijing Games menu at the Singapore 2005 IOC Session. International Baseball Federation President Harvey Schiller is in Beijing, lobbying IOC members to reinstate the sport when they meet in Copenhagen in October 2009.
“It’s going to be a tough one to get baseball back to the Olympics,” said Canadian coach Terry Puhl, a 14-year outfielder for three big league U.S. teams. “They’ve tried everything to get the best players available. I just don’t see the owners of Major League Baseball shutting down their season and losing a lot of revenues.”
Written by Bob Mackin in Beijing For general comments or questions, click here
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
