Softball hurts 2016 Olympics Chances with latest Decision

On Thursday, February 26th, the respective presidents of the International Baseball and Softball Federations finally met to dinner in a restaurant in Orlando, Florida on initiative of Dr. Harvey Schiller (IBAF). The reason for the gathering was the offer from Baseball to combine the efforts for reinstatement into the Olympic program with Softball, with Baseball as the men’s sport, Softball as women’s counterpart.

Schiller presented his proposal to Don Porter in a two-hour session. The ISF president already had said before that he didn’t expect much from the meeting. Nonetheless it was surprisingly that he and the ISF declined the offer from the IBAF only a few hours later. This only means one thing; he never really had intentions to think about it.

It is another bad decision by the ISF. Several months ago they started a resolution for independent national Softball federations, trying to separate Softball from Baseball, especially in Europe. Now he not only declines a joint bid, but also announces that they want to bring Men’s Softball to the Olympics, which is another shot against Baseball.

Porter also claims that he has the support from the international Softball community behind him. However we know that this is not true. We know that most of the European Baseball and Softball Federations are against the separation plans and have no intentions to fulfill this proposal, which is anyway impossible to the limited financial resources. Schiller confirmed in one of his latest press releases that he received much support from around the globe for a joint bid.

President Porter maybe has been in his position for too long to have a clear view of the situation and the potential of such a joint bid. Basically this reaction represents the unprofessional attitude the ISF has shown in the past years in most of their efforts. It looks like this might be the end of the Olympics hopes of the Softball movement. Thanks to Mr. Porter and the rest of the ISF board members this final opportunity is lost! Hopefully there will be no negative effect on the Baseball campaign.

Announcement of last Thursday’s Meeting
Statement from Dr. Harvey Schiller, IBAF President
Statement from International Softball Federation