Greek team has American flavor

Greece’s Olympic baseball coach threatened to quit Thursday to protest a roster that includes just two local players.

“I feel very bitter … I’ve been used and I feel insulted as a person and as a coach,” Dimitris Goussios said. “I’ll fight this up until the last minute.”

Only two local players were included on the 24-man Olympic team announced by the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation this week. The rest of the places went to players of Greek heritage — as remote as great-grandparents — from the United States and Canada.

Goussios said he wasn’t consulted in the team selection and argued that at least six homegrown players should have been chosen to guarantee that the sport has a future in Greece.

Seventeen teams play in a 5-year-old Greek baseball league here.

Greece, a nation of 11 million people, is relying heavily on those of Greek descent to find athletes in baseball and other sports that are largely unfamiliar in this country.

Male athletes granted summary citizenship for the Olympics have been made exempt from Greek military service.

“Of course the American-born players are of higher quality and we warmly welcome them as part of Greece … but this is unfair. Many of the local players have proven their value over the past year,” Goussios said.

He said a more “balanced” Greek team won an Olympic test event in March against Russia, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

At the Olympics, Greece will play favorites Cuba and Japan as well the Netherlands, Taiwan, Canada and Australia.

The United States lost to Mexico in a qualifying tournament and was eliminated from the Olympics.

“We’ve been working very hard for three straight years for this goal and for what?” player Giorgos Lebesis complained. “Many of us are very good … it’s simply not fair.”

The Greek Olympic team was created with the help of Peter Angelos, the Greek-American owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

Selection was made by three team assistants, following the death of team manager Rob Derksen, who suffered a heart attack in New York last month.

Officials from the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation could not be reached for comment.

Suspected dopers included on U.S. roster

Track athletes Torri Edwards and Calvin Harrison were included on the United States’ roster submitted by the U.S. Olympic Committee despite pending drug cases against both.

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said he couldn’t confirm the names sent to the Athens Organizing Committee before the official announcement later Thursday, but acknowledged the roster submitted by USA Track & Field after last week’s Olympic trials was not altered.

Edwards qualified in the 100- and 200-meter runs and is a member of the relay pool, and Harrison was selected as part of the 1,600 relay pool.

Edwards faces a possible two-year suspension after testing positive for a banned stimulant at a meet in April. A three-person arbitration panel began looking at the case Monday.

Harrison’s spot in Athens is in jeopardy after he tested positive for a stimulant at last year’s national championships. He also faces a two-year ban in a hearing that starts next Monday.

Any athlete with a pending case can’t be barred from the Games if they qualify for the team, but the International Olympic Committee approved a rule this year that allows teams to change their roster for exceptional circumstances up until the technical meeting for each sport in Athens. The technical meeting for track is Aug. 17.

NATO expected to lend security support

NATO is expected to approve in the coming days a last-minute Greek request for extra counterterrorism help at next month’s Olympic Games, alliance officials announced.

The new plea — coming weeks after the alliance agreed to send air and sea patrols and experts in biochemical weapons — underscores fears that the Aug. 13-29 games in Athens could provide a high-profile target for terrorists.

NATO ambassadors were supportive of the request for assistance with “counterterrorism aspects” of security, but no decision was made while technical and procedural details are worked out, officials said.

“NATO is responding to a specific request from Greece,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns said. “The U.S. fully supports and expects a positive response from NATO to assist our ally Greece.”

A NATO official said on condition of anonymity that the alliance was expected to agree as early as Wednesday to support Greece.

A U.S. official in Washington said this week that the United States has committed 400 special forces soldiers to help protect the Olympics. The United States is discussing with the Greek government whether the soldiers will be positioned inside or outside the country, the official told The Associated Press.

NATO refused to elaborate on the new request, but officials said issues of basing and command and control had yet to be worked out.

In Athens, the top Greek law enforcement official insisted foreign troops will not be deployed inside the country.

“There will not be any American, Portuguese or French army in the streets, the venues or as snipers on rooftops or in any other Olympic-related facilities,” Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis told a parliamentary committee on the Olympics.