Baseball and the Olympics

In 2008 in Beijing, baseball was played as an Olympic sport for the final time. Baseball and Softball became the first sports cut from the Olympics since polo was eliminated in 1936.  The two sports were cut to make room for rugby and golf. America’s pastime could potentially never get the respect it deserves on a global stage again. Every time I think about this, I find it ridiculous. To deny one of the most international sports that receives so much media attention a spot as an Olympic sport blows my mind. Over half of Major League Baseball rosters are made up of players from outside of the United States. Not to mention there are sports much more boring in the Olympics. Baseball is vastly played in all of Latin America, all across North America, and Asia.

            The World Baseball Classic is a testament to how worldly baseball is. Very similar to the World Cup for soccer, the WBC pits the greatest baseball players against each other to find out which country is the most prominent in the world. Asia isn’t often noticed when it comes to soccer, but when it comes to baseball, nobody does it better. The Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese dominate the baseball community like no other. Additionally, ask any baseball scout where they search for new talent and your most popular responsible will undoubtedly be the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Venezuela. In fact, some of the best coaches in the game today hail from those countries.

            The popularity of the Little League World Series should also be an indication of how international baseball is. Every year, Japan and Saudi Arabia battle the United States for championships and the true passion of these children shines and pulls in huge television audiences across the world. Now these youngsters will never be able to see the international stage again while representing their country.

            Softball’s disappearance from the Olympics has also been a big deal, but really only to Americans. The pride Americans have taken in pulling for athletes such as Jennie Finch is quite infectious, but I don’t think you will ever see as strong of an argument. Honestly, as an avid baseball fan, softball is relatively confusing and harder to get really excited about.

            In 2011, a proposal was made to move baseball back into Olympics for 2020. If a move has not been made by the time I graduate a move into the real world, I would absolutely love to be part of a committee that gets the game I love the most back to glory in the Olympics.