I don't understand how the games can have Ice Dancing, Table Tennis, Curling, & Sailing, but leave out two fantastic sports with worldwide appeal like Baseball and Softball. And dropping them as a backlash to the steroid scandal is not a good enough answer. If that is the case, why haven't they dropped cycling yet?

Because all the sports you mentioned have far far far greater worldwide appeal and popularity than baseball and softball combined... Baseball and softball simply aren't particularly popular or widely played outside of a few select countries.

Curling has a far far far greater worldwide appeal than baseball and softball? I think the real problems are (a) the countries baseball and softball are popular in are not European (among those listed as supporting the reinstatement were Cuba, Australia, Guatemala, Brazil, Spain, Canada South Africa, and Taiwan -- that's support from at least one more continent than curling would get), (b) none of the best baseball players participate, and (c) softball is less popular (and the American team has never faced much of a challenge), but organizers don't want to remove a women's sport while not removing a men's sport.

The notion that baseball is not a sport with global appeal is a giant sack of crap. It is probably the #3 team sport in the world behind soccer and basketball. It suffers because it isn't popular in Europe, it's most closely associated with the USA, which the IOC can't stand, and because the best players don't do the Olympics.

If the IOC is so concerned about global participation, why do they even have the Winter Olympics? Europe, North America, and a little bit of China and Japan, and that's pretty much it.