American Society & Values

Documents & Texts from America.gov

05 August 2008
2008 Games Could Mark "Strike Three" for Baseball in Olympics

By Ralph Dannheisser
Staff Writer

Washington -- Even as athletes from around the world gather in Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, baseball is headed for what may be its final turn at bat as an Olympic sport.

Voting by secret ballot at their 2005 meeting in Singapore, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to eliminate baseball -- and also softball -- from the quadrennial games starting in 2012. They became the first sports dropped from the Olympic program since polo was jettisoned in 1936.

Eight baseball teams will take part in the Beijing Olympic Games August 13-23 at the specially built Wukesong Baseball Field. Competing will be favorites Japan, Cuba and the United States; four other teams that also qualified via regional tournaments – South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Canada and the Netherlands; and China, included as the host nation.

Baseball’s history in the Olympics is relatively short: After several earlier abortive tries, it was added as a demonstration sport in 1984 and achieved medal sport status in 1992.

But the decision to drop the sport now presents a contradiction, coming as it does when what has been a quintessentially American game -- once called “America’s pastime” -- is becoming increasingly popular with players and fans in many lands. (See “Baseball, Once Just an American Game, Extends Reach Worldwide.”)

There is special irony in the fact that the sport will be having its final innings in Beijing, just as China is emerging into baseball prominence after Mao Zedong banned it there more than 40 years ago. Four Chinese signed major league contracts last year with the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners and, this past March, Major League Baseball launched a Mandarin-language Web site beaming scores, statistics and some games to fans in China.

Some commentators read the 2005 decision to eliminate two popular American sports from the Olympic menu as an effort to embarrass the United States. The Washington Post has complained editorially of what it calls the IOC’s “conspicuous anti-Americanism.”

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has his own conflicting take on the IOC action. In a statement issued in July, he suggested it was discrimination directed against Cuba by the “rich and powerful masters of the games.” Cuba won baseball gold in 1992, 1996 and 2004, finishing second to the United States in 2000.

But Belgian Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, offered a more benign explanation for the 2005 vote. “The message … was that the IOC wanted the best athletes, universality and clean sport,” he said at the time. “Baseball could come back if they address some issues, of which the first one is to make sure that the best players can participate in the games.”

His comments reflected disappointment that almost all U.S. major leaguers have stayed away from past games -- not a surprising situation since the Olympics fall during the U.S. baseball season. Indeed, current rules set by the major leagues and the players union bar participation by players appearing on major league team rosters before June 26.

And Rogge’s reference to “clean sport” reflected his view that baseball does not have the same strong anti-doping policy that governs other Olympic sports. Notably, recent years have brought revelations of widespread steroid use by star American players.

But Rogge held out hope, in comments to committee members, that baseball and softball could return to the Olympics as early as 2016 “if we consider they have addressed their shortcomings.” Both will be included in a 2009 vote that will decide the program.

Baseball’s exclusion, largely on the basis that high-profile U.S. professionals have declined to take part, shows a 180-degree shift in the Olympic concept over the years.

In 1912, American Indian athletic great Jim Thorpe won gold medals in both the decathlon and pentathlon. The following year, the IOC, intent on preserving the games’ strictly amateur status, stripped Thorpe of his medals when it turned out that he had been paid -- minimally -- for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball in 1909 and 1910. His medals were restored in 1983, some 30 years after his death.

Bob Watson, general manager of USA Baseball, is optimistic that the scheduling problem involving U.S. major leaguers can be resolved in time for the 2016 games -- perhaps by replacing the majors’ present mid-July all-star game break with a longer one allowing participation in the Olympics.

“I believe the Olympics are definitely going to want to have baseball back in the fold,” he told reporters in a conference call July 16.

Such a resolution is a priority for the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), the sport’s worldwide governing body. When American Harvey Schiller was elected IBAF president in 2007, he pronounced it his “main objective to get baseball back in the official Olympic program.” IBAF’s Web site says the group is determined to resolve the outstanding issues.

While baseball’s Olympic status remains uncertain, the new World Baseball Classic, inaugurated in 2006 with 16 national teams taking part, provides an alternate avenue of international competition. The next classic is scheduled for 2009.

And, whatever the ultimate outcome, the umpire’s cry of “play ball” still will echo this year in Beijing.

For more information, see The Olympic Experience.

More Coverage

back to top ^