Craig Daily Press

John Vandelinder

John Vandelinder's columns appear Tuesdays and Fridays in the Craig Daily Press. E-mail him at jvandelinder@craigdailypress.com

Craig — I couldn’t believe it when I heard it.

Trampoline is an Olympic sport.

I had to read it twice.

And, get a load of this nonsense: Baseball and women’s fast-pitch softball are out.

What?

You have got to be kidding me.

The national pastime of the United States will be played this summer in Beijing, and after the 2012 Summer Games in London, baseball — on the world’s stage — will be no more.

Let’s see if I’ve got this right.

Take away baseball and softball, add in a little table tennis (just call it ping pong already), triathlon, beach volleyball and trampoline and you get … one less viewer.

Curling lives on. Golf is gone. There is field hockey but no rugby.

Who decides this stuff?

Football isn’t included and neither is bowling.

But, there’s BMX and synchronized swimming for all those BMX and synchronized swimming fans.

All — let me count, I can do it with two hands — 20 of them.

Okay, I used my toes.

Major League Baseball players don’t participate in the games.

The USA baseball roster is made up of college and minor league players that usually are beaten down by 40-year-old “amateurs” from Cuba and the Far East, so it’s not like steroids — if present at all in the “show” — would even come into play.

And, the Olympics have the most stringent testing for performance-enhancing drugs in all of sports.

Various reasons have been given for dropping baseball and softball from the Olympic program, but I think there is only one that counts: Major League Baseball’s refusal to follow the lead of the National Hockey League in suspending their season so that the best athletes can compete in the Olympics.

With the exception of boxing, the International Olympic Committee wants the Olympics to showcase the best athletes in the world in each sport.

When MLB refused to cooperate, baseball was booted out of the Olympics.

In my opinion, MLB has been painfully shortsighted and has lost a golden opportunity to exhibit its sport to parts of the world where it is relatively unknown.

Bad call.

But, don’t cancel it all together.

As for softball, the case has been made that the United States is so much better than other countries that the sport is not really competitive. However, I believe that softball is simply being punished for the sins of MLB.

So, basically, because no other team can compete with the U.S. women, they decided to get rid of it.

Should we get rid of swimming because China always wins?

Should we get rid of soccer because Brazil always wins?

I think not.

Let’s just all buy trampolines and dream of Olympic glory.

John Vandelinder can be reached at 875-1793 or jvandelinder@craigdailypress.com