USA SOFT: Bustos ready to try baseball

With softball dropped from the 2012 Olympic Games, Crystl Bustos is ready to try baseball.

After winning Olympic gold medals in 2000 and 2004 and a silver medal this past summer in Beijing, Bustos, 31, is considering an offer to play Minor League baseball for the Tucson Toros, a professional independent team that was formerly a farm club for the Astros.

"I'm looking into it as a possibility. I think I can do it," said Bustos, who resides in Valencia and played high school softball at Canyon High.

Bustos said she has retired from USA Softball but might stick around as a coach.

"I left my cleats at home plate in Beijing. I knew it was going to be over for me whether we won or lost," Bustos said. "I just want to focus on other things. By the time softball would be in the Olympics again, I'd be 39, and that's stretching it a bit."

gerry.gittelson@dailynews.com