Defending champion U.S. baseball team out of '04 Games

wilheim · Nov 7, 2003

PANAMA CITY, Panama -- The defending champion United States baseball team failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics, stunned by Mexico 2-1 Friday in a qualifying tournament.

The U.S. team was among the favorites to win the gold medal again, and there was a chance Roger Clemens would have pitched for the Americans.

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

hanover00 · Nov 7, 2003

Now Clemens will be back. Who will he sign with?

WildBill · Nov 7, 2003

Why would he come back? He will sign with a high school near his home in Texas to be a coach or something. No point in pitching, especially since he is on the verge of "losing" it and going out looking badly. Got a couple of rings and a gazillion dollars, no better time to hang it up then now.

bosox1086 · Nov 7, 2003

Beautiful. No medal for Roger. Finally some good baseball related news. F Him. Roger, I'll see you in 5 in Cooperstown. I'll be the guy with the "Clemens Sucks" shirt.

hanover00 · Nov 7, 2003

Just a joke Bill.

jgerson · Nov 8, 2003

This is pathetic for the United States. As a huge baseball fan this is disgraceful that our national pasttime won't be represented in Athens. The world has caught up to us and its time for us to take a closer look on how we can improve our developing of young players for the future.

BigGamesOnly · Nov 8, 2003

Why in the hell do they have a single-elimination tournament for getting into the Olympics? That is unheard of. I see where the US went 3-1 in the tournament, losing only to Mexico 2-1. Baseball is such a variable sport that even bad teams can beat good teams on any given day.

What Olympic committee thought up this fiasco?

Railbird · Nov 8, 2003

America isnt that good in baseball, not a suprise, American baseball is bad scouting and designer steroids. Clemens is far from washed up, he has a qualty 5 years in him atleast if he wants it, people have been trying to write Roger off for the last 10 yrs, everytime somebody rights him off he wins a CyYoung. He would easily win 20 again next year if he wanted.