Olympic baseball invisible for major leaguers

NEW YORK (AP) -- For most major leaguers, the Olympic baseball tournament might as well have been on the moon. Wednesday's gold medal game between Cuba and Australia didn't have many of them in front of their televisions.

"I don't think anybody's paying attention," said the New York Mets' Mike Cameron. "The Americans aren't playing -- it's no fun."

With the coverage on MSNBC and the Yankees on the road for most of the Olympics, shortstop Derek Jeter said there was no way he could tune in to the baseball because that channel wasn't available in the team's hotel.

Four years ago, with a group of minor leaguers managed by Tom Lasorda, the United States won the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics. But the defending champions were denied a trip to Athens by a 2-1 loss to Mexico in a qualifier last year in Panama.

"I think it's ridiculous we're not represented," Houston All-Star outfielder Lance Berkman said. "I haven't seen any of it. But we've got our own race going here, and we're pretty involved in that."

Nearly all of a dozen major league baseball owners surveyed last week said they hadn't watched any of the Olympic baseball, although most said they had seen parts of the Athens Games.

Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office, went to the start of the tournament, returned for the owners' meetings in Philadelphia, then went straight back to Greece.

Very few major league teams thought enough of the tournament to send scouts, with Atlanta, the Chicago Cubs and San Diego among the exceptions. Alderson said the talent varied in the eight-team field, which also included Australia, Canada, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Taiwan. The impression is very few of the players could make it to the majors.

"Certainly Cuba and Japan have broad-quality teams," Alderson said. "Australia has been very surprising, and the Canadian team has played very well. I would say that there are certainly half a dozen to a dozen [players] based on scouts that I've talked to here, primarily with Japan and Cuba."

Major league baseball is opposed to allowing major league players to participate in the Olympics.

"I don't really see it because you can't stop a pennant race," commissioner Bud Selig said this week.

Instead, management and the players' association are planning to launch a 16-team World Cup in March 2006. Japan, however, isn't sure whether it wants to participate in a tournament controlled by major league baseball.

As for the Olympics, another group of minor leaguers will be sent to qualify in 2007 for the Beijing baseball tournament the following year -- unless there is no baseball tournament.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said in December that baseball's status will be reviewed after the Athens Games to determine whether the sport should remain on the 2008 program.

"Shoot, I'm hearing more about women's softball more than anything, and swimming and gymnastics," said Mets infielder Danny Garcia, who has split the season between the majors and the minors. "It's the minor leaguers, guys like me, who are on our team. I'm sure I would watch it more if they were there than I am now. But it wouldn't be my first choice."