BEIJING // Major League players could be heading to the Games in eight years if campaigners to get the sport back into the Olympic fold get their way. The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) president Harvey Schiller and his staff are pushing to get their sport in the 2016 Olympics after it was voted out for the 2012 London Games.
One of the key issues is the level of competition in the sport and making sure the best players in the world are involved. A solution that Schiller is discussing with Major League Baseball's organisers and the players' association is the idea of having big leaguers participate in the latter stages of the competition. That would ensure minimal disruption to the 162-game major league season. "We don't have to shut down baseball to do it,» Schiller said.
"What we've heard from the players is they want to be in it." The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote in October 2009 in Copenhagen about what sports, if any, they will bring back for 2016. These Games were baseball's 12th, but it has only been a medal sport since 1992 in Barcelona. Cuba has won three of the four Olympic gold medals since baseball became a medal sport - settling for silver in 2000 when they were upset by the United States.
An IOC concern is the length of games because the contests have no specific ending time. An IOC executive committee will meet again to discuss each sport and then present its findings and recommendation to the IOC assembly for vote next year. The other sports looking to get back in the Olympics are softball, squash, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens and golf. * Agencies
