Along came Japan to topple the mighty and seemingly unconquerable United States 3-1 in the gold-medal game Thursday night in Beijing. The Japanese beat a U.S. team that was supposedly so talented the court of public opinion said the Americans had killed Olympic softball. But Japan couldn’t have cared less about such theories, trotting out pitcher Yukiko Ueno, whose right arm might be just as impressive as Michael Phelps’ feet and Usain Bolt’s legs. Ueno pitched her third complete game in two days, 28 innings in all, and proved what the United States had been saying all along – it was vulnerable after all.
So for the first time in the sport’s Olympic history, the Americans won’t be coming home with gold, losing the last game in a sport that has been voted out of the Games until at least 2016. It was the last Olympics for pitcher Jennie Finch, who cried as she accepted her silver medal. The last for power hitter Crystl Bustos, who stood stunned as the Japanese bounded into each others’ arms on Beijing’s Fengtai Field. The last for pitcher Cat Osterman, who sounded defiant in the face of critics who said U.S. dominance sealed the sport’s Olympic fate.
ADVERTISEMENT “People have been saying at times we’re too good – well, we sit here and tell you guys that there’s parity,” Osterman said. “You just don’t see it. Well, you saw it tonight. That’s what we’ve been trying to tell people all along.”
“Maybe people will get off our back and realize there is parity,” snapped U.S. coach Mike Candrea.
And yet, the world will never know if Thursday night was just an amazing anomaly or some too-little-too-late evidence that the rest of globe was indeed catching up to the U.S. On one hand, the Americans had won gold in Athens by a total score of 51-1 over their opponents and had run roughshod in Beijing to the tune of 57-2 heading into Thursday’s medal round. But on the other hand, Japan and Ueno gave the U.S. all it could handle Thursday, too, pushing the Americans to extra innings before falling 4-1 in the ninth. Clearly, this was a pitcher who had been preparing specifically for this moment, when her team would need a desperate performance at the most vital moment.
“I feel good and I don’t feel tired at all,” Ueno said through a translator after her improbable win. “I have actually pitched five (games) over three days. That has been quite tough, too. But not only was this tough physically – this is the Olympics. It’s a top-level game. In addition to physical issues, there are the mental issues. At one point I thought my head was going to burst.”
So maybe this wasn’t a harbinger of future doom. After all, the Japanese are no softball slouch, particularly when playing on consecutive days. Japan went 6-1 before losing to the U.S. in the preliminary round, then rebounded from the losers bracket by beating a solid Australian team. It stands to reason that the Japanese would beat the United States eventually given enough opportunities. But maybe this was simply a hot pitcher playing the United States in back-to-back games before finally getting its number.
“I’ve always felt the rest of the world was getting better,” Candrea said. “… I do know that I’ve been around the game long enough to respect everyone that we play. Sometimes the game looks easy (for the U.S.), and it really isn’t.”
Now we’ll never know, and the United States will be left to wonder what went wrong. From the two innings of bases-loaded play that produced nothing on the scoreboard, to a pitching staff that hadn’t allowed a single earned run in the Olympics giving up two in the final, there’s plenty to sort out. And the Americans will have plenty of time to do so.
So for the first time in the sport’s Olympic history, the Americans won’t be coming home with gold, losing the last game in a sport that has been voted out of the Games until at least 2016. It was the last Olympics for pitcher Jennie Finch, who cried as she accepted her silver medal. The last for power hitter Crystl Bustos, who stood stunned as the Japanese bounded into each others’ arms on Beijing’s Fengtai Field. The last for pitcher Cat Osterman, who sounded defiant in the face of critics who said U.S. dominance sealed the sport’s Olympic fate.
ADVERTISEMENT “People have been saying at times we’re too good – well, we sit here and tell you guys that there’s parity,” Osterman said. “You just don’t see it. Well, you saw it tonight. That’s what we’ve been trying to tell people all along.”
“Maybe people will get off our back and realize there is parity,” snapped U.S. coach Mike Candrea.
And yet, the world will never know if Thursday night was just an amazing anomaly or some too-little-too-late evidence that the rest of globe was indeed catching up to the U.S. On one hand, the Americans had won gold in Athens by a total score of 51-1 over their opponents and had run roughshod in Beijing to the tune of 57-2 heading into Thursday’s medal round. But on the other hand, Japan and Ueno gave the U.S. all it could handle Thursday, too, pushing the Americans to extra innings before falling 4-1 in the ninth. Clearly, this was a pitcher who had been preparing specifically for this moment, when her team would need a desperate performance at the most vital moment.
“I feel good and I don’t feel tired at all,” Ueno said through a translator after her improbable win. “I have actually pitched five (games) over three days. That has been quite tough, too. But not only was this tough physically – this is the Olympics. It’s a top-level game. In addition to physical issues, there are the mental issues. At one point I thought my head was going to burst.”
So maybe this wasn’t a harbinger of future doom. After all, the Japanese are no softball slouch, particularly when playing on consecutive days. Japan went 6-1 before losing to the U.S. in the preliminary round, then rebounded from the losers bracket by beating a solid Australian team. It stands to reason that the Japanese would beat the United States eventually given enough opportunities. But maybe this was simply a hot pitcher playing the United States in back-to-back games before finally getting its number.
“I’ve always felt the rest of the world was getting better,” Candrea said. “… I do know that I’ve been around the game long enough to respect everyone that we play. Sometimes the game looks easy (for the U.S.), and it really isn’t.”
Now we’ll never know, and the United States will be left to wonder what went wrong. From the two innings of bases-loaded play that produced nothing on the scoreboard, to a pitching staff that hadn’t allowed a single earned run in the Olympics giving up two in the final, there’s plenty to sort out. And the Americans will have plenty of time to do so.
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