The International Olympic Committee has voted a pair of very popular sports out of its Summer Games lineup. And fans and players are crying foul.

Members of the IOC cast secret ballots Friday on the future of each of the 28 sports currently in Summer Olympic competition.

All but baseball and softball received the majority of votes needed to make the cut -- making them the first sports since polo in 1936 to be cast out of the Olympics.

They will be played at the upcoming 2008 Beijing Games, but won't be included when London, England hosts the Olympiad in 2012.

Toronto Blue Jays coach Ernie Whitt, who was just getting into his role as Canada's baseball manager and building a competitive team, said he heard "rumblings" that baseball would be cut from the Olympics. Nevertheless, he said he was still "very disappointed" with the decision.

Canadian softball pitcher Auburn Sigurdson said she was "shocked" when she learned about the IOC's decision.

"We thought softball was growing and getting better," she told CTV News.

The director general of Baseball Canada, Jim Baba, said "It felt like you were tagged out at home plate with the tying run or something. It was discouraging."

The ouster left two slots to be filled, with selections from a list of five candidates: golf, rugby, squash, karate and roller sports.

After nine rounds of voting, however, they were all rejected.
Squash and karate came closest, but both were defeated in a contested final confirmation ballot.

IOC president Jacques Rogge, who was booed when he suggested the final vote be made with a show of hands rather than secret ballot, trumpeted the outcome as "very democratic.''
Others were not so pleased.

"Nobody was happy with the outcome in the morning, nobody was happy with the result of the afternoon,'' senior Canadian IOC member Dick Pound told reporters. "And we've lost two sports and done nothing to replace them.''

Chief among their complaints, Pound said, was the lack of openness.

"What kind of message does the IOC send when there is complete secrecy on an issue that is important to the world?'' he asked.

The controversy centres around the IOC's decision to keep all the vote results absolutely secret.

Citing the desire to spare narrow losers embarrassment, the IOC would not even give the figures to national sports federations or even its own members.

Instead, the sealed results were being sent to an IOC notary for safe keeping. They would be opened, Rogge said, only in the case of a voting dispute.

An official medal sport since 1992, baseball's image has been battered of late, thanks to allegations of steroid abuse within the U.S. professional ranks.

Softball, the only all-female sport in the Games, has suffered by association.

Both sports are also considered by many to lack global appeal -- saddling some host cities with expensive facilities they will have little use for once the Olympics are over.

According to the Italian president of the international baseball federation, his sport has suffered as a result of such perceptions.
"I don't think the IOC members know our sport deeply enough," Aldo Notari said. "But we'll continue to survive. We're looking ahead to Beijing and putting on a good show.''

According to Rogge, baseball and softball have a chance to be voted back on to the official lineup for the 2016 Games.