What might have been: the lost Olympic dream
Thu 9 Aug 2012
On August 6, BaseballSoftballUK Joint CEO Jenny Fromer met with a Chicago Tribune journalist, Philip Hersh, who is in London to cover the Olympics. But Philip was also interested in the story of the shattered Olympic dream: what might have been if baseball and softball had been in London 2012. Hersh wound up writing a sensitive article on the subject for his paper. Below, Jenny explains a little more about this encounter, and there's a link to the Chicago Tribune story and video.
Earlier this week, at the same time that the men's 400m hurdles final was playing out at the Olympic Park, I met with a journalist, Philip Hersh, from the Chicago Tribune. Philip has been an Olympic sports writer for the Tribune since 1987 and is here in London covering his ninth Olympics. He was interested in doing a piece on what might have been if baseball and softball had been retained as Olympic sports, and so we arranged to meet. Philip and photographer, Myung J. Chun, came to the BSUK office and we talked for a while about the significance and impact of our sports not being part of the London Games.
The three of us then took a walk over to Regent's Park where some of the City Bankers' League teams were playing that night so that Philip could contrast this with the fact that if things had been different this would have been the site of Olympic baseball and softball right now. On surveying the grass fields with worn-out markings, one of which actually crossed a path in left field, it was all too stark a reminder that we should have been looking at state-of-the-art, albeit temporary, stadiums, packed with people cheering on GB's baseball and softball teams.
You can view Philip's story and Myung's video on the Chicago Tribune website.
Jenny Fromer
(Image courtesy of the Chicago Tribune)
