Olympics, Day 1

News from games on Day 1 of the Olympic baseball tournament featuring the three European teams:

Netherlands 11, Greece 0

Rob Hughes of the Singapore Straits Times watched the Netherlands rout Greece, 12-0, and was impressed by the international flavour of Olympic baseball. Reporting on the same game, Nick Peters of the Sacramento Bee focuses on the familiar names in the Greek and Dutch teams:

The U.S., remarkably, isn't represented in a sport it invented, yet there was a definite familiarity when the tournament began. Several former major-leaguers dotted the international rosters, and the windy conditions were reminiscent of Candlestick Park.

It was broiling at the main Olympic site, but Helleniko Baseball Stadium is a seaside venue, and the late-summer winds called Meltemi were blowing in from the Aegean. A cloud cover provided some relief.

A leadoff liner by Baltimore Orioles' first-round draft choice Nick Markakis was the first hit in Greek Olympic history. He later added the team's only other hit. The 7,000-seat stadium was about 80 percent full.

Japan 12 , Italy 0

The Japanese all-star team triggered the mercy rule against Italy after seven innings.

In a report about low attendence at the Olympics so far, the Associated Press reported that "barely 5,000 fans were in the stadium, and there were almost as many Japanese fans as locals."

ESPN's headline summed up how lopsided the games have been: Four losing teams score total of one run.