Not same ol’ ballgame

ATHENS, Greece — The defending champions are missing from the Olympic baseball tournament. So is the luster.

Without the United States around, it just isn’t the same.

“It’s sad, isn’t it?” said former major league manager Davey Johnson, who is helping coach the Netherlands. “But that’s baseball.”

That’s Olympic baseball, anyway, and it’s played a whole lot differently than in the country where it was born.

The United States pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the 2000 Games in Sydney, knocking off powerhouse Cuba to win its first baseball gold. The long-standing rivalry — often bitter, always riveting — was headed for a new level.

Or, so it seemed.

A quirky qualifying format limits the number of teams that can come from each part of the globe, reserving a spot only for the host country. One bad day can knock a nation out of the eight-team field, as the United States found out.

No one is missed more than the Americans.

“It’s always special for a Cuban to play against the United States,” Cuban first baseman Antonio Scull said. “The Americans say they have the best baseball in the world, and we want to show that we’re No. 1.

“I’ve been dreaming of getting revenge on the field for four years.”

They’ll have to wait for at least four more.

Or, they can just take their frustrations out on some overmatched team in Athens. There are plenty of those.

There’s the home team, the one that’s still learning the nuances of the game.

As the Olympic host, Greece got an automatic berth. They don’t play much baseball around the Acropolis — there’s a 5-year-old amateur league — so U.S. players with Greek ancestry were imported to try to make the home team respectable.

“Every team here is exceptional,” said Greek manager Dusty Rhodes, referring to the competition. “Except for the USA, you have the best teams in the world. We’ll need a few breaks, and we have to play errorless ball to have a medal chance.”

They’ll need to do a lot better than the Greek women, who set an Olympic record with six errors in their opening softball game on Saturday.

Cuba and Japan are favorites to play for the gold medal.