(ATR) If baseball/softball ends up on the Tokyo 2020 sports program, don't expect to see Major League Baseball stars there.
Robert Manfred, commissioner of MLB, told the AP on Apr. 23 it is unlikely that MLB players would participate if baseball an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Games.
"The Olympics are a challenge because of the calendar," Manfred told reporters.
"They are particularly a challenge when the site is halfway around the world and the date falls in the middle of our regular season."
Manfred's comments echo the sentiments of former commissioner Bud Selig. During the 2013 IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Selig sent a video of support as baseball/softball gave one last pitch for inclusion to the 2020 Olympics to the IOC.
Before the session Selig told the Associated Press that MLB "just can't" stop their season in August to send players to the Olympics.
"Do I wish [we] could? Yes," Selig said at the time.
"But is it practical? No."
Manfred added that the World Baseball Softball Confederation should demand a long-term commitment from the IOC before potentially returning to the Summer Olympics in 2020.
"I think it would be a mistake for our sport to make an arrangement with the Olympics whereby we go in for Tokyo and not have some commitment that the Olympics were going to commit to baseball over the longer haul," Manfred said.
Baseball was dropped as an Olympic sport after the 2008 Games in Beijing. However, the WBSC is pushing for reinstatement in the Tokyo 2020 Games, thanks to Olympic Agenda 2020 reformsand baseball’s popularity in Japan.
"Conceptually, I think it would be good for our game, for baseball generically defined, to be an Olympic sport," Manfred added.
"I know there is some interest in having a baseball event in the Tokyo Olympics because it's so popular in that particular country."
A final decision on the Tokyo 2020 sports program will be made the 2016 IOC session in Rio de Janeiro.
Written by Andrew Murrell.
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