The U.S. baseball team, made up of minor leaguers, was eventually trounced, 10-2, by defending gold medalist Cuba in a semifinal Friday, a close game blown open with two three-run home runs in the eighth inning.

But even in that instance, Phillies catching prospect Lou Marson gave you something to like.

When Cuba’s Alexei Bell stood at home plate for almost five seconds watching his blast soar over the leftfield wall, Marson got up in his face and moved him along.

"I told him to get running," Marson said. "I told him some other things, too."

Marson and another Phillies prospect, Jason Donald, were one and two for on-base percentage among U.S. Olympians. Both hit around .300, both delivered big hits in the crunch. And both ended up playing more than expected because of injuries.

Marson and the Americans have one more game in Beijing for the bronze medal, in the last Olympic baseball tournament, before heading back home.

For Marson, that likely means a trip back to Double A Reading.

Look for more on Lou Marson in Saturday's Daily News.

The supposedly unbeatable U.S. softball team, the team so dominant the IOC kicked the sport out of the Games, at least for London in 2012, lost, 3-1, to Japan in the gold medal game Thursday night.

The U.S. was roundly outplayed by a Japanese team whose pitcher, Yukiko Ueno, went all seven innings ... after she threw 21 innings Wednesday in two extra-innings games, nine against the U.S., then 12 against Australia. She pitched out of bases-loaded jams in the first and sixth innings. Crystl Bustos supplied the scoring with her sixth homer of the Games -- a half-swing, opposite-field blast in the fourth, breaking her single Games record for homers by one and extending her career record to 14.

Japan turned in three scintillating defensive plays in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the win.

It was the first time the U.S. has not won the gold since softball became an Olympic sport in 1996.

Meanwhile, across town, Hope Solo, the goalie who wasn't good enough to face Brazil in the World Cup last year, was in net against the Brazilians in that gold medal game. Delran's Carli Lloyd punched in the deciding goal in the 96th minute. That was during the first of two mandated 15-minute overtime periods.

Solo's contention that she would have played better in the World Cup final than did veteran Briana Scurry, coach Greg Ryan's choice, earned her the team's ostracization, which, in turn, cost Ryan his job. Solo had faced Brazil twice in friendlies, but this time, things weren't so friendly.

The U.S. has won three of the four Olympic women's soccer tournaments and was the defending gold medalist.

Erin Donohue's Olympic journey came to a disappointing end tonight when she finished eighth in her semifinal of the women's 1,500 meters.

Donohue, from Haddonfield, N.J., posted a time of 4:16.05. The winner, Iryna Lishchynska, of Ukraine, finished in 4:13.16 in the slowest of the semifinals.

Donohue was third coming around the final turn and is usually a good finisher. She was slightly bumped in the stretch but did not use that as an excuse. She said she just did not have it today and had tightened up.

"I just ran a poor race and didn’t get there," she said. "I just wasn’t ready to close. I just know from my workouts I can do better than that. It's really disappointing."

Look for more on Donohue in tomorrow's Daily News.

A ditty from Distinguished Inquirer Phil Sheridan on his Olympic experience to date:

Jaques Rogge called it fogge,

But it looks and breathes like smogge.

The IOC is up its tree

But at least we aren't eating dogge.

Once you blow away the world, simply running wondrously isn’t enough.

The question becomes: When will you blow us away again?

Usain Bolt yesterday nipped two-hundredths off Michael Johnson’s 19.32 mark in the 200 meters set at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, a mark once thought unassailable. In doing it, the Jamaican also won his second gold medal of the Beijing Games.

But, in the afterglow of his 100-meter performance Sunday, it was as if the 200-meter record didn’t really matter.

Bolt was a 200-meter specialist until May. Then, in his fifth 100-meter race, he exploded into world-record contention with a 9.76-second finish. He broke 100-meter record in late May, a 9.72. He broke it again it Sunday, laughably, pulling up after 60 meters and cruising home in 9.69 seconds.

So, when he crushed the field by more than a half-second yesterday, lowering his personal best by 0.37 seconds – well, that was neat, but … what’s next?

Will he chase Johnson’s 400-meter record?

Will he seek to lower the 100-meter record further?

Will he apply for citizenship and run alongside Barack Obama?

“To tell you the truth, I just want to chill out right now,” he said, typically cool. “I want to sleep. I wish I was in sandals right now.”

His sandals will have to wait until after Friday, when he runs with the 4x100-meter relay team.

And then, he can bask in his significance.

He brought his island nation great pride.

And he resurrected a sport tainted into cartoondom by performance-enhancing drug use.

“It’s great for the sport,” said Great Britain’s Christian Malcolm, who finished fifth. “He’s lively. He’s fun. He plays to the crowd. I mean, his last name’s Bolt. And he’s only 21.”

Twenty-two, actually, today.

After Bolt kissed the track and shimmied through a Jamaican dance, the stadium’s loudspeakers played “Happy Birthday” to Bolt as he took his victory lap, wrapped in Jamaica’s flag.

“Right now, in Jamaica, the run is flowing and the reggae is playing!” crowed Dr. Herb Elliot, a medical member of the Jamaican contingent.

“We have the best coffee in the world! We had Bob Marley, who gave the world a new religion!” said Olivia Grange, a Jamaican information minister. “And we have Usain Bolt! … He means so much in every corner of Jamaica. Every man. Every woman. Every child.”

Wonderful.

But … what’s next?

Sprinters don’t usually reach their peak until their mid-20’s. Johnson was 28 in Atlanta. Carl Lewis, the only other 100/200 Olympic champion (in 1984), was 30 when he ran the best 100 of his life, at the 1991 World Championships.

“He’s got to get to 26, 27, 28, before he hits his prime,” said former world-record hurdler Renaldo “Skeets” Nehemiah. “He’s beautiful to watch. Poetry in motion.”

Johnson had said earlier in the day that Bolt might fade in yesterday’s race; that Bolt’s training might not hold up through this late date in the meet. After yesterday’s 200, Johnson called Bolt “Superman Two” on a BBC broadcast.
Bolt credited using the 400 meters as a training tool before concentrating on speed work lately – that, and his enduring love of the 200, born when he won the world junior 200 meters at the age of 15.

“I can’t explain it,” he said.

His love for the race explained his performance. In contrast to his 100-meter cruise, when he spread his arms and pounded his chest for the last few dozen meters, Bolt yesterday ran through the line and leaned at the end.

“This is a fast track. I told myself that if I’m going to get that world record, I’m going to get it here,” Bolt said.

He felt it coming:

“I knew I would go that fast. I’ve been running fast times and shutting down (at the end).”

Then he glimpsed himself on television. He couldn’t help but pause and watch, and think:
“I just blew my mind. And blew the world’s mind.”

The world can’t wait until it happens again.

Movin’ on up!

A pair of sloppy racers supplied a bizarre subplot to Usain Bolt’s world-record performance in the 200-meter final.
Both second-place finisher Wallace Spearman of the U.S. was immediately disqualified after the race for stepping out of his lane. The U.S. protested that disqualification, then accepted it.

However, upon reviewing the film, the U.S. noticed that Netherlands runner Cherandy Martina, who crossed the finish line in third, also stepped out of his lane. They protested Martina’s race and won the protest.

As a result, U.S. sprinter Shawn Crawford was moved from fourth to second and U.S. sprinter Walter Dix moved from fifth to third, which meant a silver and bronze medal for the U.S.

“I ran my race. I did my best,” Martina said.

“Wallace Spearman stepped out. The second place guy stepped out,” said Crawford. “Hopefully, Usain stepped out, too. That’s a gold for me!”

Or not.

The U.S. women's basketball team, women's softball team and the beach volleyball duo of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh are all only their way to gold medals. The question is, will anyone put up much of a fight? Consider:

Basketball

After their 104-60 win over South Korea in the quarterfinals, the Americans have won 31 consecutive games since losing in the 1992 semifinals and have made the medal round in every Olympics they have entered.

Softball

The softball team is 7-0 at the end of the prelims, having outscored their opponents by 53-1, swatting an Olympic record 13 home runs and hitting .377 as a team. The pitching staff has allowed five hits with 56 strikeouts in 39 innings and one unearned run. The U.S. has won all three gold medals since the sport was added to the Games and is 34-1, including 21 straight wins since 2000.

May-Treanor/Walsh

The defending gold medalists have won 107 consecutive matches. They have not lost a set in the tournament and have not lost a match at any level on the beach since August 2007. The United States has now reached the podium in all four Olympics since beach volleyball was added to the games in 1996.  They play the Chinese duo of Tian Jia and Wang Jie in the finals.

So, Nastia Liukin missed out on a gold medal Monday. She and her father immediately blamed the low scores of an Australian judge, then blamed Aussie judges in general for other low scores Liukin has received over the past few competitions.

Then they puched a kangaroo, trapped a koala, ripped Paul Hogan's thespian genius and called Elle MacPherson a stretch-marked hussy.

Aussie aside, Liukin lost the gold yesterday due to an oft-used, 9-year-old tiebreaker rule that nobody knew: not her, not her coach, not the reporters who cover the sport.

Imagine a hockey game going into overtime, one team scoring, everybody leaves the ice ... but nobody knows why.

Bizarre.

After Liukin and her dad, Valeri, betrayed their ignorance to a group of likewise ignorant scribes, the scribes stormed through the bowels of the Gymnastics Federation offices, demanding ... what?

A better copy of the rules already supplied by the Fed 15 minutes before? Information on a rule change almost a decade old?

A pig-in-a-blanket thing like the one Fed spokesman Philipe Silacci was eating when he was accosted by a frothing, insistent mob?

Ties used to mean mutiple golds or silvers or whatever. That changed after Atlanta in 1996.

Silacci and his boss, FIG pres. Prof. Bruno Grandi , each explained the rules and their history in heavy, wonderful Olympic accents.

What a mess.

She lost.

She still won all-around gold.

She'll still never have to work a day in her life.

And she's still as lovely as a daytime vampire.

View gallery

So here’s the question, as you try to sample a culture unfamiliar to you:

If you had the chance to go to a Chinese bath where little tiny fish chew on your naked body as a means of exfoliating, would you?

Or, if you knew of a restaurant that specialized in the fried genitalia of various animals, would you give it a go?

Me neither.

Even if it would make, in the words of more venturesome and foolish colleagues – OK, Marcus – a great blog.

But be assured both exist. A reporter from Denver blogged the restaurant experience (tastes like chicken?) and I ran into an Aussie camerman who had sampled the fish bath.

``They go right to your feet first,’’ he said. ``and then they work their way up.’’

``They chew on everything?’’ I asked.

``Everything,’’ he said.

Before I get in trouble with my newspaper, I think I will stop here.


Visiting the Wall

Week 2, the Chinese workers are still friendly. But our novelty has worn off. Exuberance has been replaced by politeness. And they walk, instead of run, to help you.

Went to the Great Wall with Marcus and his friend Milo on Saturday. Beautiful blue skies brought big crowds. Been on it once before in 1984. It blows you away, thinking of all the labor that went into the thing, and it’s really a blast to be on it. There are scribes here who haven’t been yet, and most of them don’t realize how unique it is. I think it even caught Marcus by surprise.

The Forbidden City is great, and so are the tomb sites and various other things to see. But if you’ve been to Epcott, you’ve really seen the Forbidden City already. Disney or anyone else can’t replicate that wall. They’ve kind of messed with it though, putting a Starbucks down below and a huge ``One World, One Dream’’ sign on the mountainside.

Then again the bottom is filled with cheap t-shirt and hat kiosks, each manned by a screeching woman. Dare to enter the sidewalk in front of them and they will practically tackle you to get you into their store, and then to buy. No prices on the items. They say a number, you say a number, and eventually you settle somewhere in between. In 84, you could buy shirts for a buck. I was pleasantly surprised that you could still get some of them for six or seven, if you haggled.

By the way I do empathize with Beijing organizers. They spent a substantial part of the beginning of these Olympics dealing with weather and health concerns. Now that the games are midway through and the air quality and weather much improved, no one is writing about it. But it’s been mostly fine, and certainly mostly smog free since those first few days. What a break.

Jersey guy looking ahead

Today, Monday, begins the portion of the Olympics that I have looked forward to the most. I live in South Jersey, in Haddonfield, and a local girl named Erin Donohue is getting ready to race in the 1,500. The schedule called for preliminaries, but there were not enough entrants so the entire field will make the semifinals Thursday, with the final scheduled for Saturday. Erin has been running around my streets for as long as I can remember, and was my daughter’s hero when she was playing basketball growing up. She focused on running after her freshman year in high school, but there’s no doubt she would have been D1 if she kept going. Anyway, a great kid, and it’s going to be real hard to stay neutral when she runs a qualifier tonight.

Blaine Neal, a pitcher from Bishop Eustace and from the next town over, is the closer on the baseball team that I hope to get to on Tuesday. I’ve already interviewed field hockey Olympian Rachel Dawson, whose younger sister Meghan was on my daughter’s AAU hoops team for a couple of years before she focused solely on field hockey. They’re from Voorhees, another neighboring town.

Anyway, that’s a first for me, all these Olympians from my backyard, two of whom I know. Blaine even introduced himself and bought me some beers down at the Elbow Room in Lauderdale when he was with the Marlins a few years ago. Pretty neat.

Speaking of ball, I saw a Chinese guy on the street near the boxing venue wearing a green Phillies hat.

Looked like he could hit, too.

Valeri Liukin has straddled the line between elite coach and everyday father of Nastia Liukin, who won the all-around gold on Friday.

Valeri Liukin won four medals in 1988 for the former Soviet Union, including two golds. Nastia took bronze today on floor, and has a silver from team competition Wednesday. Tomorrow she competes on uneven bars, her speciality, then on beam Tuesday.

Valeri couldn't be happier at the possible eclipse: "I tell you what, every morning, I wake up with a humungous ... smile!"

You gotta be happy for him.