Softball federation wants another pitch

Now that it appears that more than a few Lords of the Rings didn't know that softball and baseball are different sports, the softball federation wants the International Olympic Committee to reconsider last month's vote that dropped both from the 2012 program for London.

Though IOC president Jacques Rogge insists the vote was final, the softball people (backed by the US Olympic Committee) want the results of the secret ballot revealed. If the vote was close, the federation has a better case, since a number of IOC members later said that they thought softball was simply women's baseball and might vote otherwise now.

As it was, the program vote was bizarre, with the members going through seven rounds of balloting to select two replacement sports (karate and squash), which they then turned down by 2-1 ratios.

Run-on sentences

At a time when baseball is debating whether a 50-game suspension for a first steroid offense is too harsh, the international track and field federation has proposed doubling its ban to four years for all sports by 2007. It's a long shot, since the World Anti-Doping Agency had all it could do to get a two-year ban accepted. A non-starter is USA Track & Field's call for a lifetime ban for a first offense. ''Lifetime, no," said Rogge. ''It should allow for the rehabilitation of an athlete. This is a common principle of due justice." . . . Though the rest of the US men's 4x400 track relay team will be able to keep its Olympic gold medals from Sydney despite Jerome Young being caught for steroids (and since banned for life), that won't hold for future quartets. The Court of Arbitration for Sport pointed out that the rules since have changed, but the Americans -- including Michael Johnson -- were grandfathered . . . The IOC is cracking down on one of the biggest doping boondoggles -- athletes claiming to be asthmatic so they can take performance-enhancing drugs. After more than 600 athletes in Sydney (7 percent of the total) asked for special waivers, the Lords required documentation for Athens and will have tougher screening for the Winter Games in Turin. ''We've caught on to their scam," says WADA chief Dick Pound.

Starts and stops

The IAAF, which runs track and field, has decided against a stricter false-start rule, even though US colleges and high schools have been using one-and-out for several decades. Once delegates at the recent congress began yowling about the proposed change, the federation shelved the idea for at least two more years. The current rule charges a first false start to the field, which actually encourages runners to jump, hoping to catch a flyer. The truth, which swimming has found out, is that one-and-out dramatically reduces false starts. The IAAF did crack down on country-jumping, though. From now on, athletes who want to compete for a different nation (e.g. the flood of Kenyans who have decamped to oil kingdoms) will have to wait three years from their citizenship date, instead of three years from when they last competed for their homeland. As before, the wait will be one year if both countries agree . . . It's no coincidence that the IAAF more than doubled the number of doping tests (from 405 to 850) before and during the recent meet in Helsinki. The last time the event was held there in 1983, athletes who'd come up clean tested dirty at the subsequent Pan American Games in Caracas, creating the first of a series of drug headaches for the sport and casting suspicion on the federation, which was accused of using ''sink technology" (throwing away urine samples) to avoid marring the meet's inaugural edition with positives. This time, only one athlete came up positive -- an Indian female discus thrower who finished 19th . . . If the Chinese want to top the medal table in Beijing in 2008, they'd better get cracking on the multiple-medal sports. After winning only a handful at the recent world swimming championships, China managed just one at the track worlds -- a silver by Olympic hurdles champion Liu Xiang . ''I was surprised, too," says USA Track & Field chief executive Craig Masback. ''I thought we would see a step forward from Athens and we didn't."

Ragged relays

What's wrong with the US relay teams, which blew two of their four medal chances in the prelims at Helsinki by dropping the baton (men's 4x100) and getting nailed with lane violations (women's 4x400)? Nothing new, of course. The women ran out of the zone in the 4x100 at last year's Olympics and the men, who had two lousy passes, were beaten by Great Britain. Keeping the same team together for the prelims and finals, as the women did to win the 4x100 here, might be one answer. ''Somewhere you have to make a decision to pick the team that's going to run and stick with it until the end," says Tyson Gay, who was left standing in the botched 4x100. Using rookies (Mardy Scales and Leonard Scott) on the first two legs probably didn't help the men. Fact is, the rest of the world is catching up to the Yanks. Even with silver and gold medalists in the 400 running leadoff (Andrew Rock) and anchor (Jeremy Wariner), the US was hard-pressed to beat the Bahamas in the 4x400, winning by less than half a second . . . Biggest fish out of water at the world meet was Samoan shot putter Shaka Sola, who missed his connecting flight from Palau to Manila en route to Helsinki, missed his event, and ended up throwing the javelin instead; he finished dead last in the prelims. ''You will not see me with a javelin again," vowed Sola, ''unless you come to Samoa and I catch you a fish."

Eight minus six

Plenty of fresh faces in the US eights for the world rowing championships in Japan at the end of the month. With Anna Mickelson and Radcliffe's Caryn Davies switching to the quadruple, only two women (Sam Magee and Megan Dirkmaat) are back from the women's boat that won silver in Athens. The men's eight, which claimed Olympic gold for the first time in 40 years, retains the stern four of Bryan Volpenhein, Dan Beery, Matt Deakinand Beau Hoopman, which will double as the uncoxed four. Newcomers to the women's boat are Liane Malcos (Carlisle), Anna Goodale (Camden, Maine), Susan Francia, and Sharon Kriz, plus Caroline Lind and Lindsay Shoop, who'll double in the straight pair. Additions on the men's side are Michael Blomquist, Steven Coppola, Paul Daniels, and Josh Inman . . . The US will send a melange of CBAers, NBA development players, and European and Asian clubbers to the Dominican Republic for next week's regional qualifier for next year's world basketball championships in Japan. The Americans, who've won their last 28 (and 46 of 50) Olympic and world qualifying games, need to finish among the top four to get their ticket. Even if they don't, they'll almost certainly get a wild-card invitation . . . After holding last year's Olympic trials in an outdoor temporary pool across the street from the Pacific Ocean, USA Swimming will stage the 2008 version in an indoor temporary pool for the first time, using the new Qwest Center in Omaha, which outbid San Antonio and St. Paul. Why Omaha? Among other reasons, Mutual of Omaha is one of the federation's major sponsors . . . On the fast track to 2008 and Beijing is Winchester gymnast Alicia Sacramone, who finished fourth in the all-around and won both the vault and floor exercise at last week's US championships in Indianapolis. Her 9.90 on floor was the highest score at nationals since 1996.

Hall door opens

Olympic gold medalists Amy Chow and Dominique Dawes, two of the Magnificent 7 in Atlanta in 1996, are among the latest inductees to the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Joining them are three-time Olympian John Roethlisberger, his 1996 teammate Chainey Umphrey, and Kelli Hill, who coached the 2000 and 2004 women's teams . . . For the first time in more than five decades, the Olympic equestrian competition won't be held in or near the host city in 2008. Because of Chinese concerns about equine disease, the events will be moved to Hong Kong, 1,250 miles away. They'll still be dramatically closer than they were in 1956, when they were moved from Melbourne to Stockholm . . . Want to rent a pre-owned whitewater slalom course? To pay for maintenance costs on the Olympic ''white elephants" going unused a year after the Games, the Greeks are offering 15 venues, including the badminton stadium and the broadcast center, for long-term lease. Investors can turn them into theme parks, restaurants, shops, or whatever.

Material from Olympic committees, sports federations, personal interviews, and wire services was used in this report.