Surprise, surprise. With the elimination of the mighty Americans, the door opened a crack and Canada took advantage. They destroyed the Mexicans 11-1, who had edged out the U.S. in the quarterfinals.
The utter injustice of selecting only 2 nations from the Americas to participate makes the Olympic baseball tournament a sham. It would be like the World Cup (of soccer) including only 6 European nations (presently about 17 make it). After Cuba and Japan, Canada must now be considered a favourite for a medal with Australia, Taiwan and Korea the only other likely candidates.
This does not bode well for baseball's continuing status as an Olympic sport. A proper tournament would have 3 qualifying zones: the Americas (6 nations), Asia-Pacific (4 nations) and Europe+rest of world (2 nations). If that is too many, then we can have 4 from the Americas, 2 from Asia and 1 from Europe/rest of the world. The final spot would be decided by a playoff of 4 teams: the 5th and 6th place teams from the Americas, the 3rd place team from Asia and the 2nd place team from the Europe/World group. That would make the Olympics an 8-nation tournament.
Note also that "Pierre" LaForest homered for Canada. Blue Jays' minor league free-agent signee Josue Matos pitched for Puerto Rico in their loss to Cuba.
The utter injustice of selecting only 2 nations from the Americas to participate makes the Olympic baseball tournament a sham. It would be like the World Cup (of soccer) including only 6 European nations (presently about 17 make it). After Cuba and Japan, Canada must now be considered a favourite for a medal with Australia, Taiwan and Korea the only other likely candidates.
This does not bode well for baseball's continuing status as an Olympic sport. A proper tournament would have 3 qualifying zones: the Americas (6 nations), Asia-Pacific (4 nations) and Europe+rest of world (2 nations). If that is too many, then we can have 4 from the Americas, 2 from Asia and 1 from Europe/rest of the world. The final spot would be decided by a playoff of 4 teams: the 5th and 6th place teams from the Americas, the 3rd place team from Asia and the 2nd place team from the Europe/World group. That would make the Olympics an 8-nation tournament.
Note also that "Pierre" LaForest homered for Canada. Blue Jays' minor league free-agent signee Josue Matos pitched for Puerto Rico in their loss to Cuba.