Travesty

No matter that the USA baseball lost a tense extra-inning match-up against nemesis Cuba that included beanball and typical Cuban bush league tactics. But I'm just coming to learn about the new extra-inning rules that have been put in place by the IOC for the Beijing Games. Any inning started past the 10th begins with runners placed on first and second bases and the batting teams may start the inning at any point in their batting order.

Purists who hate the DH and eschew All-Star - World Series home field advantage rule must really be out of their skulls on this one. The IOC has neutered baseball of its most beautiful things -- that there is no clock and that the game play itself out as it began. A rule like this makes me happy this is baseball's last appearance on the Olympic stage. Grrr...