Greek baseball not homegrown

ATHENS, Greece - Greece's Olympic baseball coach threatened to quit Thursday to protest a roster that includes just two local players.

"I feel very bitter ... I've been used and I feel insulted as a person and as a coach," Dimitris Goussios said. "I'll fight this up until the last minute."

Only two local players were included on the 24-man Olympic team announced by the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation this week. The rest of the places went to players of Greek heritage - as remote as great-grandparents - from the United States and Canada.

Goussios said he wasn't consulted in the team selection and argued that at least six homegrown players should have been chosen to guarantee that the sport has a future in Greece.

Seventeen teams play in a 5-year-old Greek baseball league here.

Greece, a nation of 11 million people, is relying heavily on those of Greek descent to find athletes in baseball and other sports that are largely unfamiliar.

"We've been working very hard for three straight years for this goal and for what?" player Giorgos Lebesis complained. "Many of us are very good ... it's simply not fair."

CENTER FOR GAMES: Control of the Olympic Village was officially handed to games organizers.

"The Olympic village will be the heart of the games," said chief Olympic organizer Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki. "It is an emotional moment."

The $397 million complex includes a hospital, drug test center, places of worship and restaurant, plus a swimming pool, track and two gyms.

ON GUARD: Australia might ask Greece to allow armed guards to protect the Australian Olympic team if there are increased security concerns before the games, the government said Thursday.

Greece has said publicly that foreign security officers cannot be armed, in line with Australia's policy at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia might ask Greece to alter its policy.

ON LOCKDOWN: The U.S. women's water polo team and five other nations opened a tournament Thursday that provided a glimpse of upcoming Olympic security.

The tournament, in the central city of Volos, included hundreds of Greek police, undercover agents and metal detectors at venues and other sites, local officials said. Traffic was tightly regulated in some areas.

EMERGENCY STRIKE: Ambulance drivers and paramedics demanding Olympic pay bonuses have called for nationwide strikes during the games.

The Greek emergency services union declared a 24-hour nationwide strike on Aug. 5 and 24-hour strikes for every day from Aug. 13 through Aug. 27. The Games run Aug. 13-29.

GOLDEN DUO: Myanmar will send a two-woman team to the Olympics in an effort to win the country's first medal.

Thin Thin Khine will take part in archery and Nan Aye Khine will compete in weightlifting.