Heinnews.com, a sports website, ran part one of an interview with IBAF president Dr. Harvey Schiller on Thursday, speaking about the obvious topic: Baseball and the Olympics.
An excerpt:
heinnews: Quite a few steps were taken by the IBAF to convince the IOC that changes were taking place regarding baseball at the Olympics. One of them was having MLB players available to play and another was an anti-doping commitment. How important were those steps?
Schiller: Although we presented a whole series of points – everything from supporting the venues to marketing – the two main points were the commitment to anti-doping and the steps that have been taken at every level – the federation, Major League Baseball, all the professional leagues – and second the commitment by Major League Baseball to allow the star players to participate so that each of the representative countries that have or would have players in Major League Baseball – because some countries like Cuba presently do not and some others may only have one or two – that from each of those rosters would have in addition to all of the other professionals the so-called stars of the game. And those would be selected by the manager of the team. So hypothetically for example if Puerto Rico was participating in the tournament they would players like Delgado and Rodriguez and Beltran and others. We’re committed to doing that and have the support of the union and Major League Baseball.
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heinnews: The other issue you mentioned was the anti-doping measures. One minor problem is that MLB does not have the same punishment standards as the IOC. How much of a sticking point is that?
Schiller: The federation is completely compliant with the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) rules and for all international competitions Major League Baseball, the Japanese professional league and others are also compliant. We did 300 in and out of competition tests with the World Baseball Classic. The only part that may or may not apply is because we have suspended players from international play but no one from any sport – whether it’s soccer or professional cycling or anything else – has the ability to suspend people from their profession when they’re outside of that. There will always be opportunities for people to work. We don’t live in a socialistic world. And we don’t live in a communistic world where we can dictate professionally through occupation whether a player can play or not according to the same rules. As long as they abide by our rules. So, a player who tests positive at the Classic you will not see that player in an international competition. The best thing about it is that Major League Baseball is testing. They are providing sanctions and education. And they are cleaning up their sport. That’s the best part.
