MLB row overshadows baseball’s return for 2020
Print Edition
THE head of world baseball promised to bring the stars of the US Major League to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after sharp questions about the sport’s return to the games program.
Baseball’s inclusion was the highlight of a package of five sports chosen for the Tokyo Olympics, which also include youth-friendly surfing, skateboarding and climbing, as well as Japanese favorite karate.
Olympic chiefs have been burned by their experience with golf, whose leading players including the men’s top four, have opted out of the Rio Games despite the sport’s return after a gap of 112 years.
Major League Baseball has not promised to make room in its schedule for the Tokyo Games but Riccardo Fraccari, president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, said “positive” talks were continuing.
“Be sure we will present the best athletes in Tokyo because our goal is not to appear one time but to be a permanent player,” Fraccari said on Wednesday.
“The goal is to have the best players at the games.”
Baseball’s Olympic future could be at stake, as the Tokyo package wins inclusion for one games only and does not assure an invite for future editions.
Franco Carraro, who heads the IOC commission for the Olympic program, said the games body was wary after golf, when several players cited concerns over the mosquito-borne Zika virus as they withdrew.
“I think the excuse they took, not to come because of Zika, is ridiculous,” he fumed, warning that baseball risked not being invited back if MLB’s stars don’t play in Tokyo.
“We hope that the international federation reach an agreement with the United States professional league, as happened with basketball and ice hockey.
“If not, the competition of baseball will not fulfil completely and perhaps... it will be difficult for baseball to be included in the future.”
The five extra sports — with women-only softball bracketed with baseball — bring an additional 18 events and 474 athletes to the Tokyo roster, and give it a strong experimental flavor.
The International Olympic Committee voted unanimously for the new package which applies only to Tokyo, where 33 sports will now be contested.
Wednesday’s vote ends a more than a year-long process which whittled down 26 applications and dropped squash, bowling and wushu — a Chinese martial art — from an eight-sport shortlist in September.
The IOC scrapped a short-lived cap of 28 Olympic sports to include the new events.
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