sports, all team sports informationThe tears from star pitcher, Jenny Finch (pictured right) and her softball teammates were about more than the 3-1 loss to Japan in the gold medal game. Silver medals aren't the usual prize the U.S. women expect at the Olympics. All team sports information reports, they have won gold every four years like clockwork and this loss was a shocker. But this loss means it will be longer than four years to take revenge.

With the demise of sports like softball as well as baseball as Olympic sports the softball athletes face the possibility that they will lose funding at home for domestic activities and training. That also means that the camps and clinics set up in other countries will bite the dust as well. Softball and baseball aren't mass appeal sports on a global level. Some of what the international outreach has accomplished is to get national teams up and running for Olympic participation. But apparently not enough for the IOC to issue a reprieve.

The IOC will reconsider both sports for the 2016 games but unless something radical happens, and quickly, the London games will be without softball and baseball.

U.S. women's basketball lives each season on the NBA's dime. U.S. baseball at the Olympic level is played by college kids and minor league baseball players in MLB; they are self-sustaining. But women's softball may suffer a fatal blow as a result of Olympic banishment.

This is more than the loss of the dreams you had for a gold medal. This could mean your passion dies on a day-to-day basis when you arrive home. But believe it or not, some analysts believe that settling for the silver medal could boost the chances of the return to the Olympics slate. You see, the world gets testy when one country continues to dominate and without more than 16 countries participating it is low-hanging fruit for officials who need to cut back.