Monday morning the 15th of June, MLB and Union Baseball Execs Bob Dupuy and Don Fehr will be in Lausanne Switzerland along with Harvey Schiller President of the International Baseball federation and John Ostermeyer IBAF General Secretary to present our case for why Baseball should be an Olympic Sport. I can't believe we even have to talk about such a stupid question. You may remember that Beijing 2008 was our last Olympic games for baseball. How this happened is a storyin itself. Through some very strategic moves by the Executive Board of the IOC in 2005 they were able to boot softball and baseball off the Olympic program.
There are seven sports presenting there case to the IOC board tomorrow which include Golf, Softball, Roller sports, squash, Rudby Sevens and baseball. The big sticking point has been the use of MLB players during the Olympics. Everyone mentions the Doping issue but I think that is really crazy because baseball has been testing in the olympics for the past 20 years and we never had a positive test...furthermore our WADA leadership has beefed up our program to exceed
IOC doping requirements.
After the Presentations tomorrow the IOC executive board will select 2 sports in August for the Voting members to rubber stamp in Copenhagen sometime in November. I will have to say I am optimistic that baseball will make the cut because the work they have put into promoting and growing the game the last few years is amazing.
Baseball and Softball are presenting as seperate sports. Which I think hurts both sports. They are basically the same sport and could be considered for 1 of the 2 open spots. I know Baseball tried to convince softball that it would be better to join forces but it didnt work out. Now both sports are adding gender equity versions womens baseball and mens softball to there presentattions. Actually Baseball has had a womens league for a long time.
The following is a great letter that Dr. Harvey Schiller sent out to many supporters of the game.
Dear Friend of Baseball,
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Monday we will present our case for re-instatement to the Olympic programme to the IOC Executive Board. Joining me in the 20 minute presentation will be John Ostermeyer, Jean-Pierre Moser, Bob DuPuy, the President and COO of Major League Baseball, Don Fehr, the Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association and Sidney de Jong, member of the Dutch National team. Sandra Monteiro, President of the Portuguese Federation and Riccardo Fraccari, the President of the Italian Federation, will also be in Lausanne to assist us in talking to various IOC members and federations during the early part of next week as well.
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Our presentation will effectively address all of the reasons as to why baseball was removed from the 2012 programme, and will offer a five day tournament plan for both men and women that will include using the best players from professional baseball. We have spent time working with all four candidate cities to make sure they understand the value baseball can bring to their bid for 2016, and continue to speak to as many IOC members as possible in outlining our plan and the steps we have made to grow the game globally, from the youngest of children to elite competition. We feel that we have done everything that the IOC has asked us to do to this point, and will continue to re-address and add to those steps over the next few months.
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As always, your support and input is needed and very much appreciated. We have received notes of assistance with IOC members from Italy, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, China, Korea, Sweden, Latvia, Fiji, Hungary and across Africa recently, and are hoping that type of support and outreach can occur with every IOC member from their federation over the next two months. The announcement of which sports will be put forward for the vote will occur in August at the World Track and Field Championships, and the final vote will then take place in October in Copenhagen.
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Also, as a reminder, information on events in your country that can be passed along to the media are also critical to get to our staff, so that we can help you tell all the good news stories about baseball to the largest possible audience.
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As always we want to thank you for all your efforts to help us grow baseball on a global scale. We think we have made great progress and have told a great story, and will update you late next week after the presentation.
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Regards,
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Dr. Harvey W. Schiller
President
International Baseball Federation
GOOD LUCK TO OUR BASEBALL LEADERS TOMORROW!
