No gold for United States in baseball or softball

For the first time since baseball and softball were added to the Olympics, the country that invented both games will go home without a gold medal.

In baseball, the U.S. was routed 10-2 by defending Olympic champion Cuba on Friday in Beijing, with the Cubans putting the game away with a six-run eighth inning. In the gold-medal game Saturday, Cuba will take on upstart South Korea, which remained unbeaten in the tournament by beating a group of top players from Japan 6-2. The U.S. will take on Japan, a team it defeated on Wednesday, for the bronze.

And in probably the biggest upset in softball history, Japan knocked off the United States 3-1 on Thursday in the gold-medal game. It was the first loss ever for Team USA in the Olympics after 22 consecutive wins. The U.S. had defeated Japan 7-0 and 4-1 earlier in the tournament.

Softball and baseball won't be played in the 2012 Olympics, having been voted out of the program by the IOC. Baseball's problem is that the best players in the world aren't playing. Softball's was that the United States was too dominant to have a true tournament.

Therefore, softball might have a fighting chance to get back on the program 2016. But there's no silver lining for the current U.S. team. An era of dominance is over, as it's not likely that many - or any - of the players on the current team will play in the Olympics again. And without the Olympics, the national team doesn't have the same luster.

"I haven't really thought about the big picture," U.S. pitcher Cat Osterman told ESPN.com. "It hurts too much to look at the future."