Excellence: U.S. Softball

It was announced some two years ago that softball would not return to the Olympics in 2012. Many think this is due to the dominance of the United States' team in international play. As though the U.S. simply has developed the sport and most other nations have not, thus Team U.S.A. wins just too easily and there is no reason for it to be an Olympic sport.

However, it's not that Team U.S.A. Softball has far better resources than other countries, such as NCAA and NAIA softball and a professional softball league in the Northwest. Japan has a professional league for instance. College softball exists in countries othan than the United States also.

The reason Team U.S.A. has won all three Olympics in softball and many international tournaments is because this team is AMAZING. I'm talking about a dynasty consisting of the most skilled team in sports.

From top to bottom the U.S. softball team has incredible talent and skill that is comparable to none.

Pitching: Liza Fernandez was good, damn near great with ther finesse, but she was not an incredibly dominate pitcher. Currently, the U.S. all of the three most dominate pitchers in softball with Abbot, Osterman, and Finch- and they each keep getting better.

Speed: In baseball, speed kills. In sofball, speed dominates. The U.S. consists of the single fastest team in the world. Any given line- up has incredible to good speed in every spot except for maybe two! Then, those two can have pinch- runners with speed off the bench.

Power: Every batter in the line- up has reasonable power, including the slap- hitting speedsters such as Watley and Lowe who are the one and two hitters and both have homered in the Olympics in the last three days. Then, there are some women with exceptional power just like there are with exceptional speed: Bustos, Nuveman, and Mendoza come to mind and strike fear into the hearts of pitchers.

Fundamentals: With the retirement of aging players and recruitment of younger ones, the team has gone through some growing pains that have shown in the fundamentals department in international and exhibition play. However, within the Olympics, the team has spot- on fundamentals.

Desire: You may think the U.S. Men's basketball team has the same abilities and should dominate seemingly as easilly as the softball team but yet, they don't. That's becuase until the "Re- deam (sp?) Team", there wasn't the desire and committment to win like there is now. For U.S. softball, that has always been there and has never been lost during major tournaments.

Team USA has it all and in abundance. The other seven teams competing in the Olympics are not piss- poor teams. They're not weak and they don't suck. They just look that way when playing the U.S.'s softball team becuase it is that good.