Baseball not likely to return to the Olympics

 

The International Olympic Committee recently turned down an attempt to have baseball return to the Olympic Games in 2016. It doesn’t look likely that it will rerun in 2020 either, and in this case it all comes down to TV money.

International Baseball Federation President Harvey Schiller was trying to complete a proposal between Major League Baseball, its players union, and the Japanese leagues that would effectively shut down the MLB season during the Summer Olympics to allow the best players in the world to participate in the Olympic Games.

Schiller envisioned a scenario much like the one with the NHL has to allow its players to participle tin the Winter Olympics. Schiller made this proposal to offer the Olympics the best TV exposure he could think of.

Since there are arguably too many baseball games already, and that the Olympic Baseball tournament lasts only five days it seems reasonable that the MLB could shorten its season every fourth year by 12 games. That way its mix of international players could return home to represent their countries in the Olympic Games.

Of course since Bud Selig debuted the World Baseball Classic, a international tournament that takes place every third year, it seems unlikely he would want to share the international stage with the Olympics.