U.S. earns bronze in baseball; South Korea wins gold in upset

South Korea went unbeaten in the Olympic baseball tournament and stopped Cuba's Olympic reign with a 3-2 victory on Saturday in Beijing.

The Koreans weren't even expected to medal, but South Korean reliever Chong Tae-hyon induced Yuliesky Gourriel to ground into a 6-4-3 double play with the bases loaded to end a dramatic gold-medal game, the last one in Olympic play for at least eight years.

If that's the way it goes out, not a bad way to end it.

The Americans pulled out a bronze medal (as predicted) with an 8-4 victory over Japan. Brett Anderson (A's) threw seven solid innings, Taylor Teagarden (Rangers) hit a two-run double and Jason Donald (Phillies) hit a two-run homer for the United States.

If the powers that be want baseball to come back after 2016, International Olympic Committee president Jacque Rogge said there's one easy solution: Get the Major League players to play.

"Yeah, it's a big factor," he told The Sporting News. "We have [Roger] Federer, [Rafael] Nadal in tennis, LeBron James in basketball. We have the best cyclists. Ronaldinho is here in football. We want these guys at the Games. We're not saying it should be an entire Major League team, but we want the top athletes here at the Olympics."

So is it worth stopping the baseball season for three weeks? I think it would be cool, but it would also mess with a season a lot more than people are used to. And a lot of revenue would be lost with a shorter season. As long as the baseball season lasts 162 games and it can't be played in March or November in the north, there will be a stalemate.