July 9, 2005

The International Olympic Committee voted yesterday in Singapore to drop baseball and softball from the Summer Games starting in 2012 without adding replacements, shrinking the Olympics for the first time since 1936. I.O.C. members were asked to vote up or down on all 28 summer sports in the first such review of the competition. A similar vote is scheduled to occur every four years. After intense lobbying efforts by representatives of all the sports, many I.O.C. members predicted last week that no cuts would be made.

Striking tones of optimism and defiance a day after the attacks in London, President Bush and the leaders of seven other big industrial nations concluded a summit meeting here on Friday saying they had made substantial progress in addressing African poverty, global warming and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Wrapping up the gathering before rushing back to London, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said the ability of the governments represented here to agree on steps to help some of the world's neediest people, protect the environment and sow peace was the most effective rebuttal to violence and extremism.

Three months shy of her 16th birthday, Michelle Wie failed on Friday to become the first female golfer in 60 years to make a cut in a PGA Tour event. But she proved once again that she can hold her own against the men. Wie shot an even-par 71 in the second round of the John Deere Classic and missed the cut by two strokes. But her one-under-par 141 was better than 49 golfers who finished two rounds, and she tied with 14 others for 88th place.

It was a risky maneuver: sending a slow-moving helicopter during daylight into rugged mountains teeming with heavily armed Taliban fighters. But to Rear Adm. Joseph Maguire, head of the Naval Special Warfare Command, his special operations unit had no choice. ''When we've got four Seals on the ground, four brothers who say, 'We're under fire, we've been shot, we need help now,' we can't wait for the night,'' Admiral Maguire said Friday at the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek here, after a memorial service that drew more than 2,000 people. ''The covenant we have with each other is that we will leave no man on the battlefield.''

On the banks of the Allegheny River, a team that had treaded water for the first half of this season was submerged indefinitely Friday night. It will take longer than the weekend and longer than the All-Star Game break for the Mets to come up for air. In a 162-game season, most nights are easily forgettable. The memory of this one, however, could last all the way until winter.