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Dragonlady8
Black Widow
Joined: 27 Aug 2004
Posts: 9198
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 Posted: Aug 20, 2008 4:04 pm Post subject: The truth comes out why soft/baseball are out of Olympics |
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| Quote: | Olympic softball lacked swing vote
Bat-maker's recusal led to sport's removal
By Mark Zeigler
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 20, 2008
BEIJING – The mere mention of the word brings shudders, even tears, to the international softball community.
Singapore.
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
U.S. Olympic women's softball players celebrated after Crystl Bustos' three-run homer in the ninth inning today led the team to a 4-1 victory over Japan and within one win of its fourth straight gold medal.
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
U.S. Olympic softball player Caitlin Lowe could not believe that she had been thrown out after trying to stretch a single into a double during today's semifinal game against Japan. The U.S. squad won, 4-1.
It is where the International Olympic Committee held its 107th session in July 2005, where it voted on the fate of the 28 sports in the Summer Games, where each sport needed a simple majority from the 100-odd voting members to stay in the 2012 program and beyond.
Softball got 52 votes for, and 52 against. Not enough. See ya.
Fifty-two IOC members had voted against softball, but it was who didn't vote that, when it leaked out weeks later, drew the ire of the legions of ponytailed American players and their parents: Jim Easton.
He owned Easton Sports, which makes aluminum bats, and was among the sport's biggest advocates. He also is an IOC member who at the time was an IOC vice president.
He recused himself from voting in Singapore, citing a conflict of interest because his company stood to gain financially from softball if it stayed in the Olympics.
“One vote, and millions of dreams,” said veteran U.S. outfielder Jessica Mendoza, whose team beat Japan 4-1 in the semifinals today to advance to tomorrow's final, softball's Olympic swan song at least until 2016, and perhaps forever. “You go back and forth, and you don't understand why. I'm not in his shoes, but at the same time I know my sport is not an Olympic sport anymore.
Jim Easton recused himself from the vote on women's softball, leading to the sport being lifted from the Olympics.
“That one vote would have helped us.”
The proponent became a pariah.
Easton said he received “nasty” letters blaming him for callously snuffing out the dreams of a generation of daughters. Web sites organized boycotts of Easton products. The editor of a softball magazine authored a seven-page manifesto demanding an explanation from Easton and, if he refused, his immediate resignation from the IOC to “make way for someone more sensitive to the interests of American girls.”
Easton wrote a lengthy letter to the magazine editor in which he tried to explain to others why he did what he did in Singapore. But he is a private man by nature, largely operating beneath the media radar, and nothing short of softball's reinstatement in the Olympics was satisfactory to his ever-expanding chorus of critics.
“If anybody had an interest in keeping softball in, it was me. It sells product,” Easton said recently from his Van Nuys headquarters. “But I was really put in a very difficult position. Had I voted, they probably would not have accepted the election (on softball's status). They would have had a re-vote without me.
“I had a conflict of interest, and the ethical rules were very clear. I went to the head of the IOC Ethics Commission and the (IOC) president, and they both said I couldn't vote. All I would have done is made a fool of myself if I tried.”
Fifty-two for, 52 against.
“The IOC took my softball dreams away,” U.S. pitcher Jennie Finch said. “That's like a knife to the heart.”
“I cried,” International Softball Federation President Don Porter said.
The irony is that six years earlier, none of this would have been an issue. The IOC launched an independent Ethics Commission in 1999 after the Salt Lake City bid scandal, along with a renewed commitment to transparency.
Easton likely could have voted without so much as anyone clearing his or her throat. And even if he hadn't, no one would have known the ballot results because the IOC never would have released them.
“He is a soft-spoken but very well-regarded member of the IOC,” said fellow IOC member Bob Ctvrtlik, the captain of the U.S. men's volleyball team when it was based in San Diego in the 1980s and 1990s. “Jim felt he did the right thing, and I can't ever fault someone doing what they think is right.”
Baseball also was voted out in Singapore, either because of its reluctance to release its major-league players for the Olympics, its rampant doping problems or an anti-American sentiment sweeping through the IOC. Softball was viewed as the female equivalent of baseball and nothing more than a way for the dominant Americans – they have outscored opponents 57-2 in Beijing – to guarantee another gold medal.
The sports' lame-duck status came before the IOC again in 2006, with a ballot to decide whether to hold an emergency reinstatement vote for the 2012 Summer Games in London. Easton participated this time, but to no avail. Baseball lost 46-42, softball 47-43.
Easton voted because he had recently sold the portion of Easton Sports that makes softball and baseball equipment. He even accelerated the final paperwork on the sale to satisfy the Ethics Commission guidelines in time for the vote.
He said the decision to unload the aluminum bat side of Easton Sports – he kept the archery division – in the months after the Singapore vote was based “mostly on business.”
But in a candid moment, he also admits the backlash from a sport he tirelessly supported did wear on him and contributed, however slightly, to the timing of the sale.
“You kind of have bad feelings about it,” Easton said. “And I got pretty discouraged. I wasn't going to continue the fight.”
Easton remains active, in his quiet way, in the campaign to reinstate softball for 2016. When the American Softball Association said it couldn't afford to send a U.S. team to the 2007 World University Games in Thailand, Easton feared it would be viewed as a “a slap in the face” to the international sports community and “bad for the sport.”
So Easton Sports funded a U.S. team to play in Thailand. NCAA teams weren't interested; Easton instead assembled a roster of junior-college all-stars that finished fourth.
Easton is in Beijing, attending IOC meetings and lobbying for softball and baseball ahead of their 2016 reinstatement vote, most likely in October 2009. He plans to be at softball's final game tomorrow, which figures to be part gold-medal celebration, part funeral.
“I'll be there to take my whipping,” Easton said. |
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[quote="Swass"] 8824, dude - I suck. You were right.[/quote]. |
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edrex
Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 24 Dec 2006
Posts: 2243
City: Nor*Cal
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| Posted: Aug 20, 2008 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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His hands were tied. Move on.
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| cameraboy wrote: | | hey edrex, go fkuc yourself. |
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bonsaitree
Outlaw
Joined: 12 Mar 2007
Posts: 198
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| Posted: Aug 20, 2008 8:57 pm Post subject: |
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| He did the right thing. He stayed out of the voting because his company stands to make more money if softball continues as an olympic sport. His vote is therefor biased because of his situation, so he did the right thing by excusing himself from voting. If a bunch of girls that play softball don't like it well then they just need to grow up and be big girls about it. He did the FAIR thing and shouldn't be bothered for it. |
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Commodore
Ladies Man
Joined: 20 Jun 2005
Posts: 11636
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| Posted: Aug 21, 2008 5:22 am Post subject: |
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Makes sense to me. But I might be looking at it from an intelligent business person's side of view. I can't think irrationally like a woman.  |
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eich82
Addict
Joined: 13 Jan 2003
Posts: 860
City: MTP
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| Posted: Aug 21, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Makes sense to me. But I might be looking at it from an intelligent business person's side of view. I can't think irrationally like a woman. |
Reminds me of the movie "As Good as it Gets" with Jack Nicholson who is an author who writes women's books. A girl comes up to him and asks how he writes from a woman's point of view so well and he says, "I start with a man, then I take away reason, and accountability". Such a classic line... |
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Wakebrad
Ladies Man
Joined: 11 Dec 2003
Posts: 12257
City: Dallas
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| Posted: Aug 21, 2008 6:45 am Post subject: |
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haugy, eich82, 
same. Sucks that people are putting it on his shoulders.
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ScottyB_RochNY
Addict
Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 971
City: Rochester
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| Posted: Aug 21, 2008 6:59 am Post subject: |
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Yeah he did the correct thing, ethically. We, as Americans, should be happy to have an upstanding citizen like that. 52 other people voted no. Softball players can take their "poor me" attitude and shove it up thier asses.
Maybe if I described it to them in another way...Did you try to vote for yourself as homecoming queen?
Of course the guy wanted his sport in the Olympics. They are acting like he did it as a malicious act. Give him a break.
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edrex
Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 24 Dec 2006
Posts: 2243
City: Nor*Cal
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| Posted: Aug 21, 2008 8:42 am Post subject: |
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| ScottyB_RochNY wrote: | | Softball players can take their "poor me" attitude and shove it up thier asses. |
That'd be hot. I'd buy the video.
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| cameraboy wrote: | | hey edrex, go fkuc yourself. |
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jt09
Ladies Man
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 22083
City: Austin
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| Posted: Aug 21, 2008 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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| how were jennie finch's olympic dreams taken away? she played in 2 olympics. |
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ChrisG
Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 1123
City: Brentwood, CA
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| Posted: Aug 21, 2008 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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| jt09 wrote: | | how were jennie finch's olympic dreams taken away? she played in 2 olympics. |
Because she won't be able to play in the next 3. |
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