To sports fans in softball-crazy Tucson, one of the more befuddling developments this summer had to have been the results of the secret ballot given to more than 100 members of the International Olympic Committee, the event's highest authority.

The nature of the ballot? Determine which of the 28 sports slated to appear at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London deserve to stay on the roster.

Members were urged not to use any sort of personal bias while judging. Instead, they were instructed to decide which sports, according to a July 8 Associated Press article, had enough "technical merit" - i.e., the potential for a wide range of countries to reasonably compete.

The results came back, and for the first time since water polo was eliminated in 1936, a sport - two, in fact - were deemed inadequate: baseball and softball.

IOC President Jacques Rogge, who in 2002 recommended that both sports be removed along with the modern pentathlon, assured that despite being ineligible for 2012, the American pastimes would certainly be considered for reinstatement in 2016.

In the meantime, conspiracy theories thrown aside for the moment, softball's luminaries are left to sit slumped in their dugouts, as all the positive momentum the game has enjoyed the last few years gets to creep toward dissolution, like an idle car being pushed up a steep hill and then suddenly abandoned.

"It's a shame because softball is a still a very popular sport," said Arizona softball assistant coach Larry Ray.

Ray is among the growing contingent of softball supporters lobbying to have the IOC's decision overturned. His boss, Wildcats head coach Mike Candrea, led the U.S. national team to its third consecutive gold medal at last year's games in Athens, Greece, and has been one of the movement's more prominent voices.

Ray believes the issue boils down to two conflicts: the need to build new multimillion-dollar structures to house both baseball and softball, and the U.S. general dominance in the latter sport.

A solution to the first problem, he said, might be to build a baseball stadium that can be stripped down and doctored later on to host softball. Among those aware of the concept is Don Porter, president of the International Softball Federation and an IOC voter.

"Everyone thinks that it's a tremendous idea," Ray said.

The second problem could remain problematic. The U.S. has run roughshod through international competition in recent years, highlighted by its 51-1 scoring margin in eight Olympic victories in summer 2004.

Still, there is some hope for parity. After a 3-0 victory in the Japan Cup finals July 31, Japan sported a three-game winning streak against the U.S. National Team, one of two American teams that competed this summer.

Any budding rivalry between the two countries - or any others, for that matter - will be forced to peak at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

After that, for at least eight years Ray and his collegiate compatriots will have to settle for presiding over what will again become the upper echelon of competitive softball: the NCAA field.

"I don't think it will hurt us in our recruiting in softball," said Ray. "I think it will give college more of what it had in the past."

But what about the future?