Jerry Milani of Baseball Digest offers his take on Thursday’s decision by the IOC, which two of the seven sports will be under consideration to be voted into the Olympic program at the IOC congress on October 2nd.
An Excerpt:
But with baseball doing so well as a global sport…it is one of the few sports outside of soccer that can be called the “National Pastime” in nations ranging from the United States and Japan to Korea, Cuba and the Dominican Republic…why is Olympic inclusion even important? After all, the continued growth of the World Baseball Classic along with millions of dollars invested in development of the sport around the world really should put baseball on a global stage regardless of the Olympics, shouldn’t it?
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While all that is true, the answer is that the Olympics remains a very important piece in the growth of baseball in many developing countries, since those sport federations get at least part of their funding from government dollars, many of which are provided to sports in the Olympic program. So while it may not be as big a deal for the growth in countries where the sport is popular, or even in some emerging nations like Italy or the Netherlands or even India, where baseball is gaining interest, the development of baseball for children can and may be slowed if baseball is left out of the picture on Thursday.
Read the full article “Thursday is D (as in Decision) Day for Baseball” on BaseballDigest.com